


Again

by Kireeeshima



Series: TTFI [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL Brothers, Canon Compliant, Cora big dork, Dadan true Big Mom, Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante Lives, Gen, Loof loves his friends, M/M, Minor Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Portgas D. Ace Lives, Rewrite ver, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, by canon compliant I mean it follows the canon TL as best as it can, pre-devil fruit Luffy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kireeeshima/pseuds/Kireeeshima
Summary: Rewrite of "The Promises We Broke, but We'll Keep Them This Time".Luffy becomes the second Pirate King, and continues sailing the world with his friends in order for them to complete their own dreams. But, his little happy adventure didn't last forever. They were dragged into a war and as exhaustion grew, lives dropped. Until he was the last one. When he too falls at the end, he expected death.Not waking up to a monkey accompanied by a Monkey D. Garp





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [For Better or For Worse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7829899) by [Syluk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syluk/pseuds/Syluk). 



1527-1528  
M:12~1  
D:26~14  


 

Luffy's breath hitched, not even flinching when a loud explosion went off far closer than what could be considered safe. He watched, watched as yet another fell down, presence fading away along with the life in their eyes. The sound of them collapsing against the ground shouldn't be as loud as it was, considering the yells and gunshots surrounding him. His mind was racing, breath following suit. His head pounded from the amount of things flooding his mind—from voices that told him _you're useless_ to _you can't save anyone_. Too weak, he wanted to cry, too weak. 

 

 _‘When I get older, I won’t cry anymore!!’_ A faded memory played in his head, but he hardly paid notice to it. 

 

“USOPP!!!” He should be angry, furious even. He should be screaming in rage and punching everything he could get his hands on. But instead, all he wanted to do was cry. Shrivel up and slam his head against the ground, like the weak little boy in Sabaody who thought he had lost all his friends. Except this boy _knew_ he's lost them, he saw it himself, time and time again.

 

 _‘I’ll become really strong…’_ A little boy's faint voice sounded, but all he was focused on was running to Nami, who dropped her staff and fell right with it. Multiple guns pointed to her, the marines slowly pulled the triggers, as if taunting the Pirate King. 

 

“Stop! They’re—They’re..!” Hah. What Pirate King?

 

 _‘That_ I’ll _be the one to protect you guys!!’_ Protect? Who can he even protect?

 

“THEY’RE MY FRIENDS!! DON’T TOUCH THEM!!!” Luffy fell face first in his run, and never before did he curse his missing leg more than he did now. 

 

 _’Iii~diot!’_ Oh. That voice sounded like Ace. Isn't that funny? That he was hearing the voice of one he loved but failed to save, as the exact same thing was happening?

 

“I SAID…” Luffy wanted to laugh. He probably would've if he wasn't screaming his lungs off in a useless beg. 

 

 _’As if a weakling like you,’_ Ah, how fitting for Ace to say that. 

 

“STOP!!!!” 

 

 _’could protect anyone!’_ Ace was really smart, he was always right, like Sabo.

 

“NAMI!!!” The world seemed to freeze, or maybe the blood loss was finally overtaking the adrenaline. His sight zeroed in on Nami. The bloodied, bullet-filled, lifeless, Nami. Dead. _Hah._ She was dead too. Luffy's lips twitched, and he cracked a smile. Haha. Dry, hoarse laughter bubbled through. Huh. Slamming his head against the ground until it split right open didn't seem like such a bad idea now.

 

 _‘Shut up!’_ He heard someone yell over his own thoughts. Zoro. He was calling his name. _Don't just sit around!_ Zoro yelled. Right. He has a responsibility. He's their captain. He needs to keep the remaining alive. 

 

“Robin, Franky, Sanji, Zoro, Jinbei, Chopper—” Luffy forced himself up, balancing on his one leg as he punched the marine behind him. He turned to his ~~remaining~~ crewmates.

 

 _‘I’ll show you!!’_ Luffy took a deep breath,

 

“RUN!!! NOW!!” He ordered, watching a few flicker their gaze to ~~the corpses of their friends~~ both Nami and Usopp before nodding. 

 

 _‘I’ll be so strong that I'll be able to beat anyone!!’_ Luffy really wished the memory would shut up. He had more important things to focus on. Chopper was crying as they ran away, and Luffy couldn't blame him. They knew there was truly nowhere to run, but they could hide, even for just a hour or two. Even five minutes would be a blessing. 

 

But to their surprise, they managed to hide for nearly a whole night, majority of it was spent on morning. Chopper seeked comfort in Robin, Sanji was beating himself up as he practically tore out his hair. Franky was crying as well, but they seemed to be filled mostly with anger. Luffy wished he had the energy to be angry. He had to be the strong pillar though, he couldn't just break down like Chopper and Franky, even if he so desperately wanted to. Zoro was his supporter, always silently by his side to make sure he doesn't crumble. 

 

_‘No one will be able to defeat me…’_

 

They were found before dawn.

 

Having to fight was no surprise. Not having to would be. After all, they had already fought for...13? Yeah, 13 days. Everyone was exhausted, and he was too. But slacking off wasn't an option. Fighting in a makeshift pegleg was, to say in the least, an inconvenience. Chopper had told him that he shouldn't even have one so soon, as his limb was still healing. 

But Luffy was too numb by now to feel the pain anyways. 

 

 _‘and_ I'll _be the one to protect you guys!’_

 

The battle that day was…not good, but not bad either. But of course, not even the smallest of good things can last. 

A bright light shines behind two of his crewmates, Franky and Robin. _Oh myyyyyyyy…You all are a rather resilient bunchhh…_ They hear. 

“Franky!! Robin!!!” Franky immediately reacted to Luffy's warning, pushing Robin away and taking the kick himself. 

 

Everything that happened afterwards was a blur.

It was almost as if his mind was refusing to let himself remember. His memory...skipped everything of that time. Just small wisps not worth mentioning. He'd rather not remember it anyways. 

 

 _Luffy._ Zoro said one night. It was just them two, quiet, but far from peaceful. They had to constantly be on the lookout, the fight wasn't over, they were just temporarily hiding. It was odd, how Luffy had no energy left to even attempt to keep up his strong front—but yet, no tears spilled out. Even when he wasn't wearing that mask anymore. 

_I won’t die_ , Zoro promises. 

Luffy had clung to those three words like his final lifeline, though, how much he believed in them at the time, he doesn't remember. He only remembers managing a weak _shishishi_ , barely above a whisper. 

Luffy had really hoped for Zoro to keep his promise, so he pushed away the voice that reminded him that everyone who said that lied. ~~How many made that promise and broke it? He already forgot.~~

 

 _‘Hmph! As if we’d want some crybaby weakling to protect us.’_ Luffy wouldn't mind being a crybaby, if it meant he could've saved his friends. But Luffy was always determined to prove himself to his brothers, back then.

 

 _‘Shut up! I’ll show you, Ace!’_ With only Zoro's back and a soft, spotted hat by his side, Luffy strengthened his will.

 

 _‘Sabo, would_ you _want someone like Luffy to protect you?’_ He can't give up yet. 

 

 _‘Well putting it that way is a little…’_ Because it's not over.

 

 _‘See!’_ Luffy snickered at the old memory, throat dry from thirst and overuse. But there's just a ghost of a smile on his lips. A genuine smile. 

“I think we should give those jerks a good beating.” Luffy said, lolling his head against Zoro's back. Warm. Moving with every breath. He could constantly reassure himself that his last friend was still alive this way. 

 

_‘But yeah, being saved by Luffy would hurt my pride.’_

 

He heard Zoro chuckle and relaxed, just a bit. It's Zoro's turn for watch so it should be fine, if only for a little while. _Aye, Cap'n._ was the last thing Luffy heard before drifting off to sleep. 

 

 _‘OI!!’_

 

~~The first time he had thought he lost all his friends, was when they had just entered the Grand Line, they were swallowed up by a big whale, Laboon. The second time was Sabaody, where Kuma suddenly appeared.~~

The next day they have yet another long battle. But Luffy's determined not to quit, he can't let his friends down. ~~Even if all but one are dead.~~ Zoro was with him though, and as long as he was, he wouldn't crumble. Zoro wouldn't have let him. So Luffy did his job as captain, and fought with everything he got. And he did. 

 

~~This time, he really lost them all.~~

 

This part was especially blurry. He doesn't remember much. Only yelling and the pure anger he felt, and how he pushed his body far past its very limits, knowing full well it'd be his last. 

He _does_ remember lying in a pool of his own blood though, exhaustion dragging him into a sleep that he knew he wouldn't wake up from. But that was fine. He had a feeling he gave the jerks a good punch or two (or more, preferably). Maybe he'll get to see them now, because he really doesn't want to be left alone... 

 

…

 

…

 

..

 

..

 

..

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

  


~x~

  


????  
M:??  
D:??

  


“ACK!!” Luffy cried out when his back slammed against something. Pain? He’s rubber, he shouldn't feel pain unless haki was used... It also didn’t feel like he bounced off at all either… maybe he's chained up with seastone? But he didn't feel like he's chained up...And while his body _did_ hurt, it wasn't anything like before. 

What's going on? Is he dead? Alive? Luffy had to fight his own body to get his eyes to open, a battle almost as tough as the one he just came from—only to see a monkey’s fist closing in on his face.

“Geh—!” Luffy sidestepped, the fist missing by a mere hair. Why? It was such a slow punch! His body didn't feel tired or sluggish so—the monkey turned around and attempted to land another blow. Again, Luffy barely managed to dodge. What was going on? Why was there a monkey? Why was he in a forest? This looked nothing like the area from before! There weren’t any forests on that island! Was he saved or something—the monkey came after him _again_ and Luffy gave it the most nastiest look humanly possible. After 18 near-nonstop days of fighting to death with marines and losing everyone he loved, the last thing he felt like doing was fighting some stupid monkey. 

 

“What’s with this thing?! Gum-Gum…” Luffy curled back his am, “Pistol!” He thrusted his arm forward. 

 

But his arm didn't stretch. 

 

“H-Huh?” He froze and stared at his fist that was… really small? Roundish, too. No muscles or faint scars from years of training and battle. ~~It wasn't covered in blood being a mix of his friends, enemies, and his own either.~~ Getting distracted was, well, not the smartest of ideas. Because the monkey took it as a chance to punch his face again, but this time succeeding. The monkey wasn't the strongest though, so he only tumbled back and fell down, scraping his elbows in the process. His skin should _not_ be that weak. The confusion was really not being kind to his head, which had a slight throb of a headache. And, to top it all off, he heard a sigh that was...eerily familiar. Terrifyingly so. 

 

 _“Haah.... And here I thought you were finally taking training seriously…”_

 

Luffy took a sharp inhale of breath, holding it. Almost fearful, he turned his head towards the voice. His jaw dropped when his eyes landed on a large muscular man towering over him. He knew this man, although they were a bit, actually, a lot less greyer than what Luffy remembered. But he would never forget them, for their fists were engraved in Luffy’s mind. 

 

“G-G-G-” The man arched a brow at Luffy’s splutter. “GRAMPS?!?!?!?!”


	2. Awaken on...Dawn Island?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS DONE! I'M SORRY FOR UPLOADING IT SO LATE IN THE DAY! (Its already 8pm here!) I got busy today, and didn't have time until now. I'll try to upload it earlier during the days. The schedule I've decided on is wed! The next 3 chapters will be uploaded once a week every Wednesday, then it'll be once every 2 weeks. 
> 
> Thank you [petiteneko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/petiteneko/pseuds/petiteneko), my angst God, for helping me make the Nami part of the prologue angstier, as it was lacking before their help. 
> 
> Also! The original version of this was inspired by _[For Better or Worse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7829899/chapters/17873494)_ by [Syluk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syluk/pseuds/). But the character King is strongly based off of their OC, the same Sea King from Luffy's island. 
> 
> Enough talk, here's the ch!

_“G-G-G-GRAMPS?!?!?!?!”_

 

Luffy scrambled to stand on both legs, mouth opening and closing uselessly like a fish. It takes a few moments, but eventually Luffy gets his voice to work, “Gramps? What are you—where is everyone? Where are we?” Garp frowns.

“What are you talking about? Focus on training.” Garp huffed out as Luffy dodged the flurry of punches behind him. This monkey was really getting annoying. 

“Training?! This isn’t the time—everyone—” A single punch manages to graze his cheek, and Luffy finally lost his patience. **“Screw off.”** He growled, low and feral. The monkey paled, bolting away into the faraway bushes. Luffy blinked. Huh? That's weird, he's sure the haki was more than strong enough to knock it out. But it was only enough to scare it? A little monkey like that? Also, since when could he stand so well? Luffy realized, slowly looking down, he could never balance so well on his makeshift peg—

“LEG?!” Lo’ and behold, where a once quickly put-together pegleg was, was now instead a real leg which was…small. Really small. Actually, both legs were. Almost as if he was a—“WHY AM I A KID?!” It wasn't just his legs! His _entire body_ was tiny! Like he used Gear Third but messed up and shrunk! 

 

“What are you going on about? Focus on training!” Garp gives Luffy a painful thwack across the head, making the boy cry out in pain. He huffed, holding his head in his hand and shaking it, “At this point, you'll never be a marine.” Luffy went bug-eyed.

“What?!” He yelped, jumping up to a stand. “A marine?? I can't be a marine, I'm a _pirate!!_ ” 

**“You’re a _what?_ ”** Sometimes, Luffy wondered if his gramps had Conqueror's Haki like he did. Because he wanted to run. _Now._ But yet, all he could do is stand there and gulp, frozen in place as Garp stepped forward. Hm. Well. Luffy doesn't really know what's going on, he _thought_ he died, and he _should've_ died. But he didn't—or maybe he came back to life?—and now he's for some reason a child, he can't stretch, nor use haki correctly, and…he feels like he's about to die. Again. Or, at least this time. 

Oh. _there's_ Gramp's Fists of Anger.

  


.x.

  


“Owowowowow…”

“Pah!” Garp spat, dragging Luffy by the collar behind him, “Really, being a pirate? Stop saying such stupid things.” He grumbled, but Luffy wasn’t listening. He was thinking. But his head was hurting, and he didn’t know for sure whether it was because of the bruise or because of the fact he was thinking. He decided to ignore it. 

_‘Like I thought… I’m not rubber anymore.’_ Luffy tugged at a finger experimentally, frowning when it didn’t stretch, _‘I can’t stretch and I feel pain without the use of haki. Speaking of Haki, my observation haki feels… blocked? Stalled? I can use it, and I can tell it’s as good as it usually is, but I need more effort to use it? Also, I’m suddenly small and not on that weird island anymore…_

“Just what is going on..?” Luffy muttered aloud, drawing the intention of Garp. 

“Training for today is over, tomorrow you’ll try again though so don’t even _think_ about trying to slack off.” Garp huffed as he shoved his pinky finger up his nose. 

“Training?” Luffy cranned his neck back towards Garp, “Where are we anyway?” A frown returned to Luffy when his neck began to hurt from the angle, so annoying...

“Where? Isn’t that obvious? The same place as always, Dawn Island.” Garp flung the booger elsewhere, completely unaware of how Luffy’s small, non-rubber brain was currently trying to process what exactly was just heard. 

“...Eh?” Silence dawned, except for the sound of the gravel under Luffy being dragged. The silence continued even as they left the mystery forest and instead entered a small village filled with windmills. Luffy blinked. He looked at the windmills, the slightly familiar old lady who greeted them with a smile, the roaming cattle, and the large plains of grass. He blinked again. His mind finally clicked. 

 

“WAIT WHAT?! THAT’S NOWHERE NEAR THE GRAND LINE!!” Just as Luffy says that, his jaw drops when he sees a bar with a sign reading “Party’s Bar”. 

“Of course it isn’t!! What are you going on about now?” Garp pushes open the all too familiar wooden doors and tosses the dumbstruck Luffy inside. 

“Garp-san! Luffy!” A young woman called, running over to help up Luffy. 

“Oh. Thanks, Makino.” Luffy peers up at the woman checking his bruises for a few seconds before his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. 

“MAKINO?!” He jumped up so quickly he nearly fell back down, waving his arms to catch his balance. The woman—no, _Makino_ —tilted her head, 

 

“Yes?” Her voice was soft, kind. As it always was. 

“What are you doing here?! No—what am _I_ doing here?! I was just in the Grand Line with everyone and—the war—why am I a kid I’m not a—” A hand was gently pressed against his forehead by a worried Makino. 

“Are you ok? Did you have a bad dream? You don’t seem to have a fever…” 

_‘Nobody thinks anything is wrong… is this a dream? Did I die?’_ Luffy looked around, eyes darting around the bar. Everything was...the same. As if not a day since his departure had passed. 

“What? Did he lose some memories? Maybe I hit his head too hard today.” Garp looked down on the small boy who was his grandson—and then, without changing his uncaring face, shoved his pinky up his nose again and shrugged, “Oh well. It’ll come back eventually.” 

“Garp-san! Luffy is still developing, He’s only 5! Please don’t push him so far!” Makino scolded him as she pulled Luffy into a protective embrace. Wait. 5?

“Don’t be stupid, he’s more than old enough for training.” Garp replied as he flung the booger, clearly unbothered.

“Garp-sa—” 

“EH?!?! SINCE WHEN WAS I 5?!?!” Luffy screamed, cutting Makino off in the process. But she didn’t seem to mind—in fact, it was quite the opposite, she seemed worried instead. 

“Are you ok, Luffy?” She knelt down on eye level with Luffy, “Do you remember your name? Your age? What about the date and where you currently are? Please answer everything.”

“Uhhhh... Monkey D. Luffy, I’m 22 almost 23, it had just turned 1528 awhile ago last I checked. About two weeks in? I was at this weird island where the log pose didn’t point to—Nami said something about it not actually being an island? I dunno—and was fighting with everyone, until they all—” Luffy’s face darkened, throat tightening and face morphing into a wild scowl. But upon seeing Makino’s expression, he quickly fixed it, “Anyways, I woke up here with Gamps for some reason.” He finished, curtly. ~~An image of him clutching a bloody spotted hat alone appeared in his mind, so he pushed it far far far away. Then he kept pushing away everything that popped up afterwards as well. Until his clenched fists loosened, and his expression went blank. Empty.~~

“Luffy?” Makino’s voice was almost a whisper, unease obvious in her voice, “You must’ve had a bad dream. Would you like some warm milk? Food?” Luffy’s stomach didn’t even growl at the mention of food, despite not eating for two days. ~~In fact, his stomach had twisted, remembering Sanji, barely standing and staggering, repeating _‘I’m a cook, as long as I’m alive, no one goes hungry.’_ ~~

“Everyone is…” He trailed off in a mumble, shaking his head to rid himself of the memories, “I’m not hungry right now…” If his friends had heard that, their jaws would drop, become bug-eyed and start screaming in total panic. Chopper would probably screech that Luffy is dying, Nami would ask if he’s a fake, Usopp would be gasping in absolute horror, Robin would probably make a crude joke like ‘perhaps he was murdered and we're talking to his ghost’, and everyone else would probably be making really funny faces. 

 

But they weren’t there to do any of that. 

 

Makino placed a hand on Luffy’s head, running her fingers through his hair. Luffy let out a sigh and relaxed, shutting his eyes and letting the feeling distract him from everything. 

“Luffy, I’m sure that dream must have been scary. Come on, I’ll explain everything to you. You seem to be confused about what’s real and what was just your dream.” She sent another warm smile and Luffy could only nod in reply. 

“Garp-san, please refrain from hitting his—he’s gone…” Garp, who was just there minutes ago was now gone. Makino however didn’t dwell on it for long and instead took Luffy’s small hand, directing him to one of the bar stools. Luffy had always loved sitting on them instead of normal chairs, it always made him feel taller because of the height, and older, since that was where all the adults tended to sit. Before Luffy could even attempt to try to crawl on the much-taller-than-him stool (which would’ve most definitely led to disaster), Makino’s arms slipped under Luffy’s armpits and lifted him up, carefully placing him down on the stool. Then she moved to behind the counter and began preparing something, and when she turned back around, she handed Luffy a mug with the word “milk” printed on it. His favourite mug as a child. He gladly took it as Makino placed a newspaper in front of him. Just before he took a sip, Makino pointed to the date on the newspaper. 02/01/1511. The headlines read “Today's Latest News”. Luffy read it twice over. And then again for good measures.That wasn’t the date last time he checked. Also, good thing Luffy hadn’t drank anything yet, because he most certainly would’ve spat it out at that moment. But he settled for slamming the mug down on the counter instead (also spilling some of the milk in the process).

 

“Nonono—1528 had just started, I went to a cool island in the Grand Line but it ended up being a trap, then everyone… and now… I’m here?” Makino calmly shook her head as she wiped up the mess. 

“You’ve never left this island, well, you’ve definitely never went to the Grand Line at least.” She explained. Luffy froze for a good 3 seconds before deciding to full on chug down the milk, attempting to drink down his confusion along with it. 

“So,” He took a deep breath, placing the emptied mug down, “I’m _not_ 22?” Another head shake. 

“You’re 5, Luffy.” Makino replied. Luffy looked down and watched a small droplet of milk trickle down to the bottom of the cup, slowly taking in everything he heard.

“So there was no war? Everyone isn’t dead?” He looked up, eyes full of hope. That was something he hadn’t felt lately. 

“That sounds like a pretty bad dream you had.” Makino casted a worried, almost pitiful glance over at Luffy who nodded, eyes downcast. 

“Mhm…It was.” If he could, he never wanted to see it again. But he knew it wouldn’t go away and leave him alone so easily, just like Ace’s death. Oh...but if it never happened, then Ace never died, right?. Does _“Ace”_ even exist? Makino does, but does he? His brothers, Sabo and Ace, his _friends_ —do _they_ exist?

“Do you want to rest up? I’m sure you’re tired after your training.” Makino asked. Luffy nodded, he felt tired, but not sleepy tired. Just...tired. It was weird. But he ignored it, and went up to the second floor where he used to stay at before being thrown to Dadan...who...doesn’t exist..? Was everything that happened really just a dream? He never set sail and met everyone? Became friends and got both the Merry and Sunny? Never...laughed or cried with everyone?

 

It was all just a made up dream? 

 

Luffy frowned and threw himself on the little futon he had on the floor. It felt...off. Wrong almost. He was so used to lying on a hammock or nothing at all. Luffy rolled over to his back and brought his hand up to his face, staring at it. It was so small and soft, the complete opposite from the hardened and battle-scarred hand he remembered. There were a few scratches here and there, but nothing that seemed to have come from any major injuries. So, his 2 years of training never happened? Was using Observation Haki earlier just in his head then? Frowning, Luffy clenched his fist and focused—it took a bit more effort than usual, but soon enough, his arm became clad in a metallic black shine. He gasped. 

“It worked! I can use haki!!” Luffy beamed and jumped up, a wide ear to ear grin on his face. So it wasn’t a dream after all! He can use haki!!

 

… Although it disappeared the moment he lost focus...

 

But that proves it wasn’t a dream! Right? Right! Everyone really _does_ exist and he really became friends with all of them! But why was he here then? The date was different too…it was way earlier, almost as if he... 

Luffy’s eyes filled with sparkles, “I went back in time??!!! SO COOL!!!!” Luffy exclaimed. But how? Did some mystery power throw him back? Wonder why. Oh well, it doesn’t matter,

“Because then that means everyone is alive like me!” Luffy was so ecstatic by this that he didn’t even consider the possibility that he might’ve been the only one. Luffy hopped up and examined his current body. No devil fruit. Tiny. All round with untoned muscles and scrawny enough for anybody to just pick him up and throw him like paper. And most importantly, 

 

weak. 

 

He can’t protect anyone like this. He couldn’t even protect anyone before. 

He didn’t take training very seriously the first time around, that is, until Ace died. But it was too late. He was in the Grand Line far too deep, and trained in such a rush. He nearly died countless times in the New World because he wasn’t strong enough. But he always managed to get through with pure luck and persistence. 

 

But that wasn’t enough.

 

That can only take you so far. Eventually, your body stops listening to you, and your attacks don’t do the damage you tell them to do. And sometimes, even when they do listen, it’s not enough. 

But it’ll be different this time, now he’ll be an unbeatable storm! Gramps is right, to get stronger, you need tough and unforgiving training! As soon as possible! He still won’t be a marine though, obviously. Luffy quickly darted out of the room and nearly tripped down the stairs on his way down. Makino looked up as he stumbled around and clumsily caught his balance. 

“Huh? Luffy? Where are you going? I thought you were going to rest?” Makino asked from behind the counter. Luffy stopped but jogged in place as he turned towards Makino, 

“To find Gramps! Bye!!” He gave a quick wave before he took off again, snickering all the while.

Alright!!

  


.x.

  


....Alright so he kinda forgot that his Observation Haki isn’t that great for tracking down specific people. That was Sanji’s skill, not his, so finding Garp was a total bust. Dang. Well, Garp would always just burst in sometime at the dead of night or the crack of dawn to drag him off for some kind of training, so Luffy will just have to wait until tomorrow. But what to do until then? Train by himself? 

“You got some pretty nasty bruises there! Garp gave you a rough time, eh?” A loud voice called out. Luffy looked over at the direction of the voice and tilted his head. It wasn’t until he saw the drying fish that he remembered who exactly this grinning, pink rope wearing guy was. 

“Fish ossan!” 

“It’s _Gyoru!!_ You still can’t remember my name, can you, kid?” The man sighed, but shook his head fondly. Luffy trotted up to the stand with a bright smile.

“Shishi! It’s been a while!” Gyoru arched a brow,

 

“You were here earlier just before you got dragged away for training, you know?” 

“Oh, really? I don’t remember.” The other let out a snort at this.

“Garp hit your head again or somethin’? They asked.

“Something like that!” Luffy grinned, hand instinctively moving to the bruise on his head he received from Garp earlier. 

“Oi oi, you shouldn’t sound so happy about that.” Gyoru bent down and ruffled Luffy’s hair, making it more unruly than it already was. Luffy giggled from the action.

“Oh my, Luffy-kun! Back from training already?” A middle-aged woman came up from behind Luffy. He couldn’t really remember her as well as Gyoru, but she seemed nice.

“Yup!” He nodded, popping the ‘p’, “I tried to find Gramps earlier but failed.” He puffed his cheeks out in a slight pout, earning a laugh from the two.

“Is Makino-san doing good recently?” The woman asked. Luffy cocked his head to the side.

“I think?” 

“You think?” Gyoru rose a brow again. 

“Well, I don’t really remember anything that happened before most of today.” And that wasn’t a lie, _‘yesterday’_ was so long ago and he woke up in the middle of _‘today’._

“Garp musta really hit your head hard this time.” 

“Gramps always hits my head hard.” Unfortunately. And he wasn’t even rubber yet! Well, not that it would help anyways. Nothing protected him against his Gramp’s Fists of Love. 

“Well, I’m glad you’re doing ok.” The woman...Chicken? OH! Chiken! said as she handed Luffy a basket full of various fruit, “Be a dear and take this to Makino—and refrain from eating before then, ok?” Chiken smiled again. 

“Aw, but I’ve been running around and now I’m hungry…” As if on cue, Luffy’s stomach growled loudly, the sound could put a wild beast’s growl to shame. Maybe he should’ve taken up Makino’s offer for food earlier.

“Well then! You better eat something better than some measly fruit!” A large fish (normal, non-monster Grand Line wise) was pushed onto Luffy by a grinning Gyoru. 

“Ohhh!!!” Luffy lit up, slinging the fish over his shoulder to carry the basket in his other hand, “Thanks! Fish Ossan!!” 

“IT’S GYORU!!” Luffy snickered and ran off, sandals slapping against the dirt pavement roads. 

“Whatcha got there, Luffy?” A villager asked as Luffy ran by.

“Gifts from Chiken! And a fish! Gotta give em to Makino!” 

“Oh! Give her my regards!” 

“Sure!” Various other people called out to Luffy and greeted him on his way back to the bar, he didn’t remember the names of all of them, but he did remember the old nicknames he had given some of them. He ran faster the moment the bar came into view, bursting through the little wooden doors and up to the counter to carefully place the basket on the counter. 

“Luffy! You’re back!” Makino went to the edge of the counter where Luffy was currently struggling to heave the fish onto the tall counter. Thankfully, Makino helped. 

“Yeah, couldn’t find Gramps though. But he’ll be here tomorrow so I guess it’s fine.” 

“Garp-san? Do you need him for something?” 

“Yup! Training!” Luffy chirped.

“What’s this what’s this? You look awfully excited about that for once!” One of the men in the bar teased. 

“Ya lookin’ to be a Marine now, Luffy?” Another snorted, everyone in the bar starting to join in. Luffy only crawled up his favourite stool and shook his head. 

“Nope. Pirate.” He said, matter of factly. The whole bar got silent, everyone glancing at each other to confirm if they really heard correctly. And when they finally realized they did—the room boomed with laughter. People banged on the tables, wheezed and slapped their knees with tears in their eyes. 

“A pirate? _You?_ ” 

“No way no way!”

“PFFFTHAHA! Just wait until Garp-san hears about _this!_ ” 

“Imagine Luffy, being _pirate!_ ” 

“Hey, it actually suits him!! A little rascal like him!”

“Ahhhh, this is great! Garp’s gonna blow a fuse when he hears this!!” 

 

“Quit it! Luffy might throw a fit, wouldn’t want to make such a scary pirate angry~” 

Now, if this _was_ the Luffy from this time, he probably would’ve gotten angry like they said. Well, more like throw a fit. But he wasn’t 5 anymore. In fact, Luffy didn’t even care about the laughing. He simply swung his legs back and forth, satisfied with not feeling as small as he really is in this body, pointing to one of the apples in the basket. 

“Naa, can I have one?” He asked Makino who gave a nod. Luffy immediately snatched it, but then got disappointed when he couldn’t pop the entire thing in his mouth. Dumb non-rubber body. A cup of juice was served to him by Makino and he gladly took it. Suddenly, while sitting on his favourite stool and drinking juice while everyone laughed at him, Luffy was reminded of Shanks. Everyone was even laughing at him for saying that he’ll be a pirate, just like the first time! Luffy couldn’t hold back his snicker. 

“What’s so funny?” Makino smiled at Luffy, not at all bothered by the rowdy background. Luffy grinned back, eyes crinkling up and showing off rows of white teeth. 

 

“Secret!”

  


.x.

  


Luffy couldn’t stand staying in the bar not doing anything after something as cool as _time travel_ happened, so he ran off, _again._ But not after eating that fish Gyoru gave him of course. On his way out, he had yelled he was going to train, leaving Makino in what seemed to be slight confusion. He had stopped in an area with plenty of trees—not Mt Corvo, since that was too far—but a small forest-like area near the mountains leading to Mt Corvo. It wasn’t too far from the village, so it wouldn’t take long to run back. Luffy decided to see what he could do in his current body...and thought the best way to do so...was to kick a tree.

 

Unfortunately, he didn’t do any damage to the tree, only his leg. 

 

“OWWW!!” Luffy yelped, falling down and clutching his poor leg, “I keep forgetting I feel pain now!” He glared at the tree as if doing so would make his stupid pain go away. It didn’t, sadly, so he moved onto his next round of ‘tests’. Luffy tried various other things like punching boulders and different trees—but all ended in failure. He even lost to a big bird, which chased him and clawed him up a bit, until Luffy managed to escape its wrath. It sucked, he couldn’t do anything! After sulking for awhile, Luffy returned when the sun began setting, covered in various cuts and bruises. He couldn’t believe it! After all his years of training, he’s suddenly so weak! But then again… if he really _was_ back in time with everyone alive, then something like this is nothing if it meant his precious friends were alive. He could deal with this and more. 

 

He just really wished he could see everyone again already. 

 

The moment he walked into the bar with his injury covered body, Makino caught sight of him and gasped. She ran over, fretting over his injuries. He didn’t really get why, they weren’t that serious. It’s not like he was missing a leg anymore or something, it was just a few cuts. It kinda reminded him of Chopper, actually.

 

_‘AHHHH!!! BLOOD! THERE’S BLOOD!! WE NEED TO TREAT YOUR INJURIES RIGHT AWAY, LUFFY!!!’ Chopper had cried one...multiple nights. Chopper sure freaked out over his injuries a lot._

_‘Huh? Oh, right. I forgot about them.’ He remembers shrugging off Chopper’s worries, insisting he was fine, ‘M’ fine, it doesn’t hurt, Chopper.’_

_‘IT’S NOT FINE!! IT COULD GET INFECTED!! WE NEED TO CLEAN IT!!’ Chopper had hissed, already taking out his medical kit and—were those bandages? What a pain, he thought._

_‘Ehhhh…’ Luffy frowned, looking for a way to escape._

_‘I won’t let you eat until I treat your wounds!’ Chopper threatened him a lot, and this was one of his most common threats, it always worked on him. Luffy saluted as always._

_‘REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!’_

 

“...Luffy?” Makino’s voice brought Luffy out of his daydream. He blinked, realizing Makino staring at him.

“Oh, sorry sorry.” He gave a toothy grin, “I was just training and got a lil scratched up, but I’ll clean my injuries in the bath! It’s no biggie!” Chopper would get mad if he found out he didn’t, he’d probably tie him to a bed for weeks! And that’d be no fun, so he ran upstairs and made his way to the bathroom. It was simple, a few towels, a wooden bucket, a small stool, and a bath. Luffy kicked off his clothes and grabbed the bucket on the floor, filling it with water and sitting down on the stool. He wasn't a Devil Fruit user right now, so he _could_ take a bath without drowning or even feeling drained—but it just felt weird without one of his friends or Torao being with him to prevent that anyways. He dumped the water in his head and began washing his hair while waiting for the bucket to fill up again. It didn't take long to finish, so he soon headed back downstairs where Makino was waiting behind the counter. He let her treat and bandage him, keeping himself occupied by humming Binks’ Sake. He could almost see Brook by his side and playing his violin along. Sighing, Luffy glanced out the window. It had been nice clear skies all day, nothing like the weather in the Grand Line. 

 

_’Hurry up and raise the sails! A tsunami and storm will appear soon! We're going to do a Coup de Burst and gain distance—ZORO WAKE UP AND HELP OUT!!!’ Nami barked out, slamming her foot against the deck. Zoro let out a wide yawn before cracking a single eye open, giving a slurred,_

_‘Huh?’ Zoro was always funny whenever he was woken up from his naps, to Luffy at least. He could still see, no,_ feel _himself sitting on the Sunny Go’s figurehead, looking up at the perfectly normal skies and weather. But he never doubted Nami, she was the weather-smart one, not him._

_‘Ehhhh…that sucks, it was such a nice day…BUT A TSUNAMI! HOW FUN IS THAT?!?! Naa naa! Will it be a super big one? Can we ride it?’ Luffy hopped down onto deck with a little ‘hup!’, holding onto his hat to prevent the sudden large gust of wind blowing it away. Nami snapped her head to him, pointing a sharp cl—nail to him._

_‘STOP WASTING TIME AND DO WHAT I TELL YOU ALREADY!!’ She took a deep breath, and turned to Jinbei, ‘Jinbei-kun, keep the course steady the best you can! When we land, the waves will still be bad so—’ then she snapped again, ‘ZORO I SAID WAKE UP AND HELP!!’ Zoro snored louder from his spot. Luffy always laughed at Nami’s face of anger. Suddenly, Sanji kicked the kitchen door open and stormed out, fuming._

_‘OI, MARIMO! DON'T MAKE NAMI-SAN REPEAT HERSELF! GET OFF YOUR USELESS ASS AND HELP!!!’ He barked out, making Zoro snarl._

_‘Ah?! What was that you Ero-cook?!’ Zoro placed his hands on his swords as a threat, but Sanji only fought back, as always._

_‘What did you just call me you—’ Nami whacked them across the head with enough force to cause their foreheads to slam against each other, both bodies dropping to the deck._

_‘STOP FIGHTING AND WORK!!!’ She screamed over the howling wind, dark clouds quickly covering the skies._

_‘Yohoho! The skies sure are getting dark…Ah. It's raining. I'm getting soaked to the bone! Although I’m nothing but bo—’ Nami let out a loud groan, cutting Brook off. Which sucked, Luffy liked his jokes._

_‘Ugh, jeez! Everyone is just so—’_

_‘Nami! Chopper and I finished tying the sails!’ Usopp called as he hopped down the mast, Chopper landing shortly after. Nami sighed in relief._

_‘Thanks you two! Finally, people who actually_ listen. _Chopper, take the rudder! Franky, is the Coup de Burst ready?’ Franky gave a thumbs up to Nami._

_‘Anytime! But we only have enough cola for one!’ Nami frowned at this, biting her lip._

_‘That won't be enough to dodge the storm, just the tsunami… we'll have to ride the storm. Jinbei-kun, Chopper, I'm counting on you! Franky, Coup de Burst!’ Zoro quickly went to Luffy’s side, Sanji going beside the other Devil Fruit users. An excited grin overtook Luffy’s face as one hand gripped the rails and another held down his hat. Sailing was always so much fun with them._

_‘Roger!!’_

  


“There, all done.” Makino gently pat Luffy's head with a smile, making him realize he was daydreaming again. It looks like he’s been thinking a lot about everyone, maybe it was because he hadn’t seen them ~~happy and alive together~~ in awhile.

“But what sort of training were you doing if you couldn’t find Garp-san? You’re all beaten and bruised up!” 

“Hn? Nothin’ much, was just trying a few things out. I'm a lot weaker than I thought.” Luffy replied as he poked his bandages. He always hated being bandaged, they got in the way all the time. But Chopper would always flip anytime he removed them because of that. Makino sighed, but not from irritation. 

“Luffy, I know you want to get stronger, but you're only 5. You don't have to push yourself so hard, you know? You’re still a child, and you have the right to be _just_ a child.” Makino’s eyes were filled with slight sadness when she said that, almost as if she were saying, no, _begging_ Luffy _‘please do it while you can.’_ Luffy didn't get why the fact he was 5 mattered. Of course he had to train, the world didn't care about his age. The moment he declares himself a pirate and the world sees him as a threat, he'll be targeted like before. He enjoyed himself enough the first time around anyways. Plus,

“I'm the captain! I need to be strong, my crew’s lives are in my hands! Well, they're all really strong, but still. I need to be there to help them when they can’t help themselves.” He said firmly, curling his fingers into a tight fist. Makino looked worried, but she didn't press any further, she only gave him a small smile. She gently pat his head again, which Luffy really liked. It felt nice, but now it made him yawn. Why was he so tired? It was still early...Luffy heard a soft giggle as he nodded off. 

“Why don't you head to sleep? It's already pretty dark out.”

“Eh? But it’s not really that la—” The remainder of his sentence was cut off by another yawn. 

“You have training with Garp-san again tomorrow, right? You don't want to be falling asleep during it, do you?” That’s true...

“Mm… alright, night.” He rubbed his eyes, eyes feeling heavy and already refusing to stay open. The sun only set about an hour or so ago, and he didn't do much today so why was he so sleepy? His feet dragged behind him the entire way until he made it upstairs to his room. Luffy didn't even get underneath the blankets, because the moment his head touched the pillow, he passed out. 

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

..

 

..

 

..

 

.

 

.

 

_Luffy blinked, or, well, tried to. His body was kinda just standing there, frozen as he looked at...younger(?) versions of himself and Torao? Not child versions, but younger, like...before Kaito? After? It was hard to tell. Dream-Luffy was sprawled out on Dream-Law’s chest, rubbery arms wrapped around a grumpy Dream-Law. Must be nice…_

_’Straw Hat-ya.’ Dream-Law grunted. Dream-Luffy didn’t move, he only kept snoring._

_‘Oi, Straw Hat-ya. Wake up.’ Grumpy Dream-Law repeated more firmly, pushing Dream-Luffy away. Ohhhh!!! He remembers this!_

_‘Mn?’ Dream-Luffy blinked up, still not letting go._

_‘Is there any reason as to why you suddenly came here, cut off my blood circulation with this inhuman hug, then fell asleep as if everything were normal?’ Luffy watched as Dream-him hummed, resting his chin on the others chest. Law was always so warm._

_‘I wanted to, so I did.’ Dream-Luffy replied, making Dream-Law roll his eyes._

_‘Of course, perfect explanation. Do you do this with everyone?’ Luffy already knew what he was going to say._

_‘Hug them while I sleep? Sometimes. But Torao is the only one I always want to do this with for some reason.’ Shishi! He didn’t even realize yet that he liked Torao more than nakama at this point. Dream-Law sighed._

_‘... Whatever. Just unwrap your death grip so I can at least sleep.’_

_‘Shishi! Alright!’_

_‘If you snore too loudly, I'm teleporting you away.’ Ah. Torao always threatened him with that, although he later learned he never meant it._

_“What? But that's no—’_

 

**“WAKE UP!!!!”**

 

Luffy's eyes shot open, only to see a giant fist closing in on—Oh. OH THAT’S GRAMP'S—

  


“WAI—”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those who read part of the original version of _"Again"_ (not "The Promises We Broke, but We'll Keep Them This Time), I hope you can enjoy this tidied up version! A _bit_ more angsty in some scenes...but the plot is the same. (Luffy was always supposed to have lost a leg in war, I just kinda forgot to write it? Until now) 
> 
> Any and all criticism is appreciated! "Rude"/"harsh" ones as well!
> 
> Also, off topic but, while I was fixing up this chapter I was reminded of a story. A story of 8th grade me. You know that scene here where Luffy kicks a tree and only hurts his foot? Yah I,,, I kinda did something like that before. There was this super big log on the floor that I saw outside during gym class. And for some reason, I decided it was a great idea to point to it and turn to my friend saying "hey how far do you think I can kick it?". And then actually kick it, full force. I was uh, wearing soft toed sneakers. And I kicked it with a kinda jab. So I just badly broke my toenail. It hurt, n bled a lot. When I was in the nurse for a bandaid she asked what the hell happened and I just went "I uh...I kinda kicked a log..?" Story time over, now you know how stupid I am. Hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter! See y'all next wed!


	3. The training begins! The will to become stronger!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy meets a new friend(?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~mom said it was my turn on the xbox~~

Luffy screams and rolls out of the way, barely managing to doge in time. The spot he was at just mere seconds ago was punched right through, destroying the wooden floor. Scary! That was seriously scary! Even scarier than Nami’s wake up calls!! Yelping when he’s suddenly scooped up off the ground, Luffy begins flailing and letting out useless “let go!”’s. He can’t die before he sees that everyone’s ok! But Garp ignores him, and instead begins dragging him downstairs. It was empty, not even Makino was there. He managed to catch a glimpse of outside through the window, and the sun seemed to barely begin to rise, so she was probably still asleep. But now that means he has no one to save him from his gramps!

"The sooner you're up, the sooner you can train." Garp finally speaks, still dragging Luffy behind him. Luffy stops flailing at that, and instead lights up. 

"Really?! Hey hey, can I fight something else besides monkeys? I wanna I get stronger! I'm so weak right now and it _sucks!_ " Luffy pleaded, now jumping around in Garp’s grip, but this time from excitement rather than an attempt to escape. Garp stopped dead in his tracks and heaved Luffy up to eye level.

"Finally! You're willing to become a marine! I knew you'd come around eventually!" Garp laughed and carelessly dropped his 5 year old grandson on the ground. Luffy made a little ‘oof’ before jumping up with a frown. 

"What? No! I wanna become a strong _pirate!_ Not a marine!" Luffy protested. How many times did he have to say he wasn't going to be a Marine before Garp finally got it?! He didn’t become a marine the first time around, and he definitely isn’t going to become one the second time around! Garp’s smile falls clean off of his face, replaced with a deep scowl. 

"WHAT?! YOU'RE _STILL_ SAYING THAT? YOU'RE GOING TO BECOME A FINE MARINE SOLDIER AND THAT'S FINAL!!" Garp picked Luffy back up and tossed him against the nearest tree, causing Luffy to yelp out in pain. That hurt!! Couldn’t Gramps wait until he was rubber again to do that?? 

"But!” Luffy starts, rubbing the large bump on his head, “I couldn't become a marine anyways cuz dad's a criminal!!" At least that's what Nami said once. And Nami is smart so she's probably right! ~~Plus Ace was killed just because of his father, who’s to say he wouldn’t end up the same? He also has no intention of working under those who killed his friends.~~

"FOOL!! WITH THE PROPER TRAINING AND DISCIPLINE, ANYONE CAN BECOME A—" Garp halts, and suddenly seems to be furious, "HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT STUPID SON?!"

"YOU TOLD ME!!" Luffy yelped, cowering down to cover his head in fear of another punch. But surprisingly, it never came. 

"Huh? That so? Oh well, just don't follow in his footsteps." Garp huffed. Luffy sighed in relief, standing up and shaking his head.

"Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m a pirate, not a Revolutionary.” That was Sabo’s thing, not his. That doesn’t sound too fun either.

"Goo—THAT’S NO BETTER!!" Ah. GRAMPS IS MAD!! 

“GYAAAAAH!!!” Wait wait wait wait! He can’t die yet—!

  


.x.

  


"Alright, these are your opponents for today." Garp jabbed his thumb towards a group of grinning monkeys, which were all giving Luffy an odd leer as they air-boxed. 

"Ehhhh? Monkeys again?" Luffy sulked, shoulders slumping. Monkeys didn't seem too fun to fight…

"Don’t complain! You’ve never beaten them before, so unless you can beat them, you have no right to complain!" Garp then ordered the monkey's to attack, and Luffy quickly got into position as each one began to charge at him. The dodged the punch of one monkey, and threw one back in retaliation—only to freeze when he realized the only thing his attack succeeded in doing was pushing back the monkey a few inches. What? The monkey’s grin stretched, and it punched back. Luffy had to duck back in an almost painful way, not to mention it was hard to balance like that. The world tilted further when another monkey did a low kick to behind Luffy’s legs, making him lose his footing and fall. 

“Ow…” Luffy groaned, pushing himself up. He can’t dodge in the ways he used to with his rubber body, he can’t twist or fold in inhuman ways, nor bend back as much as he could before without it hurting. So annoying...Huh? Luffy blinked, noticing he was now surrounded. And still on the ground. Uh oh. Luffy ducked to get out of the way of a punch, then leaped up into the air to dodge a kick. He could at least do that, otherwise he would’ve died years ago with Garp as his grandpa! While still midair, Luffy kicked a monkey across the head, but it was sadly only strong enough to make the monkey stumble a bit. 

“Damn.” Luffy clicked his tongue, jumping further away the moment he landed. This is bad. He’s weaker than he thought. Disregarding the fact that he doesn’t have full control over his haki yet, Conqueror’s Haki wouldn’t work anyways if the opponent knows how much stronger they are compared to him. Besides, he can’t always rely on that. Advanced Armament is out of the question as well, since it’s still difficult to use normal Armament right now and—

A moment too late, Luffy sensed another monkey sneak up from behind and punch his head. He fell face first into dirt and rocks, and all he could hear was the snickering of every monkey. Luffy planted both hands on the ground, and began to slowly push himself up. Now on his hands and knees, Luffy takes a deep breath,

 

"THAT HURT YOU STUPID JERK!!!" Luffy snarled, letting out a feral growl before pouncing on one of them. He went on a blind rampage, throwing punches, kicks, slaps, bites, and everything in between. By the end of it, Luffy was beaten and battered up, completely limp on the ground. Yet he barely managed to take two down, if only his attacks weren’t so weak! 

"Ugh…” Luffy wheezed, trying and failing to catch his breath, “G-Gramps… my attacks are way too weak, there's not enough force behind them." Luffy wiped his sweating forehead, sitting up with jelly and scratched up limbs. He heard Garp hum almost thoughtfully. 

"Hm. Alright then. Get down and give me two—no, three hundred pushups."

 

. . .

 

"...Huh?" Luffy blinked up at Garp. Three hundred what now?

"What are you doing just standing around? You want more force behind your punches, right?” Garp grunted, crossing his arms. 

“Well yeah but—” Luffy stops and thinks for a moment. While that sounded boring to do in comparison to fighting giant beasts, it also sounded like the training Coby told him about way back when he first worked under Garp. And if Coby could do it and get stronger, why couldn’t he? It shouldn’t be too hard!

  


.x.

  


It was hard. _So hard._

The most frustrating parts were when Luffy would think ‘I can do this!’, only to find that no, he couldn’t. Not being able to do things as easily—or at all—that were so recently possible _sucked_. Things that wouldn’t tire him before exhausted him now, and it put a real downer on his mood. He also still needs to get used to not being able to stretch and—all this thinking is making him hungry.

  


~x~

  


1511

M:2  
D: 6

 _‘Happy birthday, Robin!’_ A large, orange-haired giant grinned, extending out a large cake which seemed small in his own hands. The little girl he was showing it to beamed, bouncing with excited claps.

 _‘Waah! What a big cake! Is it really for me?’_ Robin, almost shyly, which made the giant laugh. 

‘Derushishishi! Of course! Come on, hurry and blow out the candles and eat up! It’s your birthday after all!’ He placed the cake down, careful not to drop it. The little girl nodded, then looked up to the giant with a large smile. 

‘Mhm! Thank you, Sau-’ 

 

"I found her!" Robin woke with a startle, scrambling to snatch her bag and run. For if she didn’t, her body would’ve filled with bullets and she’d reach her unfortunate end. Perhaps if they were merciful, they’d leave her body for the dogs to eat. But it’s more likely that they would sever her head and swing it around like a trophy. 

"Kill her! Kill the devil's child!" Dying and finally finding relief from everything was a nice thought, but it was something she couldn’t afford to do. Not yet. Robin noticed an alleyway and darted into it, pressing her back against it as much as physically possible. 

"Find her!" She heard, followed by countless footsteps. As each one grew closer, Robin shut her eyes and crossed her arms. Once the group of marines were in range, arms bloomed from the marines bodies. She covered their mouths before they had the ability to call for help. She took a deep breath, and a loud crack echoed through the empty alleyway. The marines went limp in her hold, so she canceled her Devil Fruit abilities and watched them drop one by one. Her relief didn’t last long, because she knew her temporary peace wouldn’t last long. It was time to run to another island again. 

"17 already, huh…" Robin looked up, but instead of seeing the starry night sky, she saw nothing but smoke and ashes. 

_‘Someday… without a doubt… you will find friends who will always protect you! No one is born into this world alone, Robin..!’_ A faint memory played, as it always did. It was the only reason she kept going. 

"I'm really starting to doubt that, Saul."

  


~x~

  


1511

M: 2  
D:19

Luffy dug his right foot into the ground, right arm curled back and fist clenched tight. A monkey tried to punch him from behind, but Luffy dodged it without looking. Said monkey made a squeak of surprise, and the monkey Luffy was about to get punch paled, realizing their distraction didn’t work. Luffy smirked, eyes flickering with mischievousness. He threw his punch right smack in the monkey’s face, then spun his body around almost instantly to elbow the other one in the same place. Both monkeys fell with a loud thud—joining the other unconscious monkeys—and Luffy threw his arms up in triumph.

 

"WOO!! I beat them all again!" He cheered, before Garp cut him off. 

"Don't get too carried away, this is only the beginning of your training." Luffy slumped as a pout took over his features.

 

"Don't make that face!! Did you really think that was enough?!” He scolds him, worsening Luffy’s pout. But Luffy _does_ agree, if all he can ever do is fight some monkeys from the East Blue, he’d never get back to what he was before. Although, he was finally getting used to his body! The whole shorter range and inability to stretch was annoying at first, and it still is, but he no longer freezes up in battle because he forgot he couldn’t stretch or bend a certain way. Though, if he doesn’t have his powers, a pipe sounds nice…

“Alright, let’s go.” Garp suddenly says, getting Luffy’s attention. Luffy blinks, then cocks his head to the side. 

“Where?” He asks, but Garp is already walking. Confused, Luffy trots up behind Garp and follows him. Everytime Luffy asked him where they were going, he would just get a vague ‘you’ll see’ so Luffy stopped asking. Instead, he occupied himself with trying to find beatles while also keeping up with Garp. He found one, which made him happy, so he played with it and followed Garp deeper into the forest. Wonder why they were going there, instead of returning to Foosha. His question is answered when Garp comes to a stop and turns to him,

"You're going to stay here for a few weeks or so. Gotta check back at the headquarters, but I'll be back, so don’t you dare slack off from your training!" Luffy looks around where exactly 'here' was and saw no buildings nor people. He saw nothing but trees and the only life he sensed aside from them were animals. Wait. He remembers Garp doing this before—

"WAIT WHAT?! YOU'RE JUST GONNA DITCH ME IN A FOREST AGAIN?!" Luffy turned to yell at Garp, only to see he was already far away and leaving. Garp offered a lazy half wave without even bothering to turn around.

"Yeah,so you better be stronger by the time I come back!" Was all he said as he disappeared behind the countless trees, leaving Luffy alone with a darkening sky, birds flying overhead, 

and a growling stomach.

 

"But I haven't even eaten yet!!” He tried calling out, but Garp was already gone. His stomach growled, and a few silent seconds dragged by.

 

…

 

"Oh well. Guess I'll find some food." Luffy decided to focus on more important matters, like food, "Let's see…mushrooms, bugs, berries, birds…there's plenty to eat!" He grabbed a nearby stick and headed elsewhere, excitement filling him on the thought of an adventure. Maybe this gives him the perfect chance to practice his haki, which hasn’t been listening to him all that well since the whole mystery time travel thing. But first, time to find food!

  


~x~

  


1511

M: 2  
D: 23

 

Luffy spent most of his time figuring out how to get his haki to work again, which was kinda boring sometimes. Using advanced Armament Haki still seemed completely out of the question considering he was still struggling to get normal Armament to appear quickly and when he tells it to, especially in battle. But when he wasn’t training his haki or physical strength, Luffy was exploring! And he found some pretty neat spots by doing so too! One was a small lake—sadly there were no crocodiles—and a little cliff that faced the ocean. It was like the mini version of that cliff he’d always sit on with his brothers, so he really liked it. Especially since it was close to the ocean. And although the ocean was generally calm, as was the weather, Luffy always expected a random storm or tsunami to appear out of nowhere, like it always did in the Grand Line. When he sat by the spot and closed his eyes at a certain time or weather, Luffy would imagine something different. On a stormy day, he could hear Nami yell orders as everyone scrambled on deck to follow them. Calm and peaceful nights resulted in him remembering Brook playing music at such times. Whereas nights where it drizzled with the occasional breeze resulted in remembering Robin, who’d sit outside and read a book, sometimes even reading one out to him. Right now, it was sunny, and Luffy could hear Zoro snores while Usopp and Chopper played tag on deck. But when he opened his eyes, all he saw was a Sea King staring at him. 

 

Wait, what?

 

Luffy blinked, staring at the eel-like Sea King stood above the water. Although it was looking at him, it had a kinda bored look on its face. It seemed tiny, compared to the other Grand Line Sea Kings Luffy’s seen before. It continued to stare at him, and gave him a sniff. Maybe it wants to be friends?

“Yo!” Luffy gave a wave, and received a roar loud enough to cause the ground to quake in reply. Luffy made a low hum, looking up to meet the creatures eyes, “Alright...I see how it is.” Luffy didn’t bother to sit up, and instead, remembered the war. His anger. The deaths of his friends. Their cries of his name. The temperature dropped several levels and a blast of air shot out from around Luffy. The beast visibly shivered, sweat beaded down its face as it slowly backed away. Luffy’s face broke out into a large grin. 

“See? I’m strong too!” He snickered, but the creature only backed away more. 

**_“What was..?”_** A voice said. Luffy looked around, but didn’t see nor sense anyone except for...oh!

“That was Conqueror’s Haki! But I’ve been having trouble using it properly ever since the time travel.” He chirps, hopping up into a stand. The creature blinks at him, and it looks almost baffled. 

**_“I’m sorry?”_** The _Sea King_ says. 

“Conqueror’s Haki,” Luffy repeats, “it’s a thing in the Grand Line, well more like new world and—what’s that face for?” 

_**“You can...understand me.”**_

 

“Yup! I have the Voice of All Things mystery thing.” Luffy shrugged, and the Sea King blinked.  


 ** _“...What?”_** Luffy shrugged again.

“It’s a mystery power.” The Sea King stares at him, blinks again, and gives a stiff nod.

  
**_“I... see…”_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **[NEW UPDATE SCHEDULE IS ONCE EVERY 2 WEEKS, NO LONGER WEEKLY]** Oof I wanted to get one more chapter up before changing this to 2 weeks but school and life is a BITCH 
> 
> Ok first off, short chapter, I know I know. But I'll make it up next chapter (hopefully)! The chapter is shorter this time cause the original had quite a bit of content that I found kinda useless or boring, so I cut it off. (Chapter length changes depending on when I felt like ending the chapter, rather than at a certain word length at the original. So far, from the chapters I have written the average seems to be like 3.2k~4k words per chapter.)
> 
> King has appeared!! Yayyyyyyy! Do you remember him? He can talk now! Well uh...not really talk but Luffy can understand him. Will there be anymore appearances? Yes? No? Maybe so? IT'S A SURPRISE! (DON'T SPOIL, THOSE WHO KNOW! I'm watching u) Oh! And sorry for the first chapter, it seemed a lot of ya'll thought it was kinda slow? I'm aware it was a slow start, but it _was_ just a first chapter, and I'm tryna not go into what happened in the original, the pacing there was insane! Not to mention I have to think about non-rereaders, those who have never read the original. But! I will try my best to keep a steady pace, and keep things interesting, but if you have any criticism about anything, feel free to say so! 
> 
> Oh and side note, Gyoru and Chiken aren't OC's, they're canon characters that live in Foosha Village like Luffy did! Gyoru is a fishmonger, who Luffy used to buy fish from as a kid. Chiken is his wife. They run Gyoru's fish shop together. There is one OC that actually isn't a mob char and shows up more than once though. 
> 
> It's a bird. 
> 
> Yes, a literal bird and I literally have it named "Bird" on its character sheet. (It already appeared actually. In chapter 1, it was the big bird that chased Luffy around.) I have an entire lifestory and future plot/role planned for it **and you can't stop me-** Ok, I'll leave now, imma go play MHW now...anyone else play? I'm totally not desperate for fellow MHW players or anything. (Hint: I totally am)


	4. Waking up in hell! It's not over yet!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told myself last chapter I'd do this but I forgot so I'm doing it this chapter. I'm using the [Ohara timeline](https://thelibraryofohara.com/the-one-piece-timeline/) for reference on the dates. Most months and days are guesses/whatever fits for the writing though, since we don't have many canon dates. ~~This chapter gave me an existential crisis because revising this really showed me how little I knew about grammar(even though I already knew I sucked at it, but I had help from some very great people)~~ , also I'm trying to fix my habit of switching tenses mid-writing so please forgive me if it happens. Point it out and I'll try fix it!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

1511

M:2  
D:23

 

A little boy sat curled up against a corner and uselessly attempted to wipe his tears away. His ankle was bright red with rashes and stung with bruises, every movement he had attempted to make was halted with the heavy iron ball attached to the binding around his ankle. With a wet sniffle, he curled up further, only to flinch when pain shocked through him, reminding him of his bruised ribs. It hurt, it hurt so much and he hated it. He hated crying, but he couldn't stop because there was just so much pain and he was _tired_ , so so tired. And cold. He was always cold in this place.

  


Tap

Tap 

Tap

  


He sucked in a breath, and quietly tried to shuffle away from the nearing footsteps. He couldn't, though, because he was already as far away as he could get. So he shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the worst. He tried to think of happy things. Like cooking ~~he always failed and got beaten for trying~~. Or mother, ~~who's gone now~~. It worked for a bit, as if he was really living in a happy peaceful paradise. But the quiet yet loud sound of someone grasping the bars snapped him out of it. Tears formed at the corner of his eyes. 

_"You're a crybaby as always, Sanji."_ The tears fell, but from relief. 

 

"Reiju!” Sanji beamed. He wanted to get up and run over, he really did. But the moment he had attempted to stand, the harsh tug of his iron restraint hurt him, causing him to let out a hiss of pain. 

 

“What are you getting so happy for? It’s not like you’re ever getting out of there, you know.” Reiju placed her hand on her hip, looking down at the curled up boy. Sanji smiled despite knowing it couldn't be seen through his helmet and stood up with a stumble. Weak and trembling arms heaved the iron ball up. 

“Eheh…" He sheepishly giggled as he waddled over to the bars, "I’m still happy to see you anyway. You don’t beat me up like the others." Reiju frowned.

“Stop saying stupid things and sit down.” The _‘so I can treat you’_ went unsaid, as per usual. He let out another giggle and sat down as close as possible to the bars, carefully placing the iron ball down to his side. While whatever wounds he had inside his helmet couldn't be treated, the ones elsewhere could. Sanji dutifully sat still as Reiju smeared ointment and placed Band-Aids over his wounds. Reiju had stayed silent throughout the treatment, but Sanji was ok with that, he was just happy it was her and not his brothers who visited him. He looked over all the bandages which were carefully tied and smiled, there was at least _some_ good left in this place.

“Don’t you get tired of getting beaten all the time?” Sanji’s smile fell. ~~Being the shitty—~~ since Sanji was rather weak willed at the time, he bit his lip and sniffled. He was tired of it. He really was. But what could the "failure" do? Nothing. 

“Reiju—” 

“Whatever, your weakness isn't my problem." She said, moving up to a stand, "You can get beaten up like always for all I care. Cya.” Sanji tried to stop her, reaching out to grab onto her wrist. But the bars separated him from the leaving Reiju. No! Nonononono! He doesn't want to be left alone here! 

"Reiju!!" The door shut, and the silence returned. A single droplet of water drips behind him, causing him to jump up. He was scared. Terrified. He had no way of knowing if his brothers were coming or not, no way to defend himself against him. He didn't even know the date unless he asked the guard! He didn't want to be here anymore, it was lonely. He missed his mom, cooking, ~~although he cooked like shit deserving of a kick through the wall.~~

Sanji felt a chill and scooted back into the corner of his cell, flinching when a drop of water landed on his shoulder. He looked up to see water dripping from a small leak, surrounded by shitty moss. Despite the fear and loneliness he had previously felt mere seconds ago, he was instead filled with annoyance. Scowling, he clicked his tongue and grumbled,

“Damn mosshead... “ 

…

Mosshead? Wh—Sanji made a violent jolt when a mind-numbing headache overtook him. His nails dug into his arms and drew blood, collapsing soon after with the loud _clang_ of metal meeting stone. Screams tried to claw their way out of his throat, but only came out as a dying groan. Clawing and grasping at his helmet, screams finally left his throat while he attempted and failed to tear off his helmet. _It hurt. It hurt._ Sanji choked out a sob, _It hurt. Worse than Yonji's kicks. Worse than Niji's punches. Worse than Ichiji's throws._

 

_But not worse than a certain shitty geezer’s kicks._

Sanji let out a long exhale, body slacking as the pain gradually left him. His hands fumbled into his pockets in search of an item that was never there, and clicked his tongue in frustration when he was reminded of that fact. He gave up and instead sprawled across the cold stone floor, staring up at the moss-covered ceiling. It wasn’t too different than the filthy ground he was lying on. Another drop of water landed on his helmet, slowly trickling off of it. He couldn't feel it, but got annoyed all the same.

“Tsk...I can’t believe the mosshead was the reason I remembered everything. I’m kicking his ass the moment I see him again.” Sanji grumbled out through gritted teeth. He still remembers staring up to the ceiling, old, cracked stone with dirtied water trickling through. _Drip drip drip,_ it was the only thing that kept him sane. Kept him from being swallowed up by the darkness that surrounded him. It would crawl towards him, reach out and try to drag him down with them. But every time it nearly succeeded— _drip_. He would blink, and get snapped free from his daze. Another drop, and Sanji lolled his head to the side. Bars. It locked him up, trapped him, alone until either a guard came to feed him, or his brothers came to beat him. 

But he was used to it, one normally would, after living through it twice over. Sanji sighed, shutting his eyes and welcomed the darkness in—darkness was better than his brothers anyway. His mind strayed, and had created a blurry scenery which would be forever burned into his mind. _Drip drip drip_

 

Just like Luffy's tears. 

 

 _Drip drip drip_ , they'd fall when their king—their captain—thought no one was looking. In battle, he'd have a smile, wide and bright in a way that'd be painful, if not impossible, for a non-rubber human. A mischievous _shishishi_ would play from his lips, and the rubbery ball of excitement would bounce and fling himself anywhere and everywhere possible. But then those _shishishi's_ became breathier, hoarser. The bouncing would decrease, while Luffy's pauses for breath would increase. The crew was in no better state, some worse off, some unable to stand without collapsing seconds after. They were exhausted, they all knew this. But Luffy, for his crew—for his _nakama_ —would snicker and accept the battles head-on, protecting everyone. Stubbornly making that _shishishi_ even when he was flung halfway across the battlefield, or when he was wobbly on his feat—even when he coughed up blood. He would always just go _"shishishi!"_ and then charge right back into battle. 

 

Until one fell.  
And Luffy's facade began to crumble. 

 

There were no longer cheerful _shishishi's,_ no longer bright grins and high fives, just, rage. Pure rage. Luffy replaced his cheerful facade with a strong one. It resembled a tree, if anything. One that refused to fall, to waver. But with every added death, an axe chopped into that tree's trunk. It was a countdown, a countdown of how long Luffy's facade will last, and it was ticking down far faster than Sanji would've liked. Then, even in battle, drip drip drip. He knew everyone was suffering, not just Luffy. But Luffy had to remain strong for “everyone”, but that “everyone” was quickly diminishing. For someone usually so determined, so headstrong, Luffy looked so…tired. So exhausted. ~~That look on Chopper had on his face was really not the last thing he wanted to see before he—~~

 

_Drip_

 

“...This place is as shitty as ever.” Sanji reached into his pocket, cursing when he remembered they were empty. It had felt like he needed a whole damn pack to even begin to dream of phantoming what happened. “... Alright, someone, I don't know who, but they got a lot of explaining to do."

  


~x~

  


1511

M:2  
D:26

“Maybe…” _FLAP FLAP FLAP_ “...I shouldn’t…” _CAAWW!!_ “...try to fight random beasts when...I don’t have my fruit...or enough control over my haki..!!” Luffy panted as he ran through the forest as fast as his little legs could take him. He craned his neck back to check on the giant angry bird chasing him, causing him to stumble over a tree root in the process. Luffy quickly caught _himself_ before the _bird_ caught him instead. He turned around to throw a punch, but then remembered midway that he couldn’t stretch. So instead, he yelped and ducked down from stone-crushing talons, darting off in the opposite direction in haste. When he had finally managed to gain some distance, he made a sharp turn and dove into some nearby bushes, crouching and holding his breath. The bird flew overhead before circling the area around and landing nearby. It looked around and squinted at the bush Luffy was hiding in, making Luffy still further. _‘Uh oh’_ he gulped. But luckily, the bird took flight again and flew off, leaving Luffy alone. Luffy cut off his own sigh of relief with a quick hand over his mouth. 

“Quietly...quietly…” He whispered to himself, crawling out of the bush. Tip-toeing away, Luffy left the area while glancing around for the bird. Which so happened to be standing in front of him. He pursed his lips, staring up at the bird whose beak glinted menacingly as it looked down on him. It slowly spread its wings open—and Luffy took off running. Again. “GYAAAAAH!!!! I’M SORRY!!!” He screamed, covering his ears when a screeching caw sounded from the bird. Having sensed talons aimed for the back of his head, Luffy quickly ducked just in time to dodge, watching as the talons flew over him and crash into stone, completely crushing it. Yikes.

“That was close..!” He sweated, continuing his escape. Before Luffy knew it, he was at his favourite spot. It wasn't his planned destination, but Luffy had seen something that made a large grin overtake his face despite his current predicament. Taking a deep breath, Luffy cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled,

“KIIIIIING!!” Luffy waved madly and started running towards the Sea King, the giant bird previously chasing him screeched and hightailed it away the moment the monster turned its gaze towards it. Out of breath, Luffy’s pace slowed soon just trotted up to the beast, panting as he fell back onto the sand. 

**_‘What did you piss off this time?’_ **

“Hey King! I thought I could get some meat for dinner...but I forgot I don’t have my fruit again. Or good enough control on my haki to knock out something like that.” King was the nickname Luffy had given the Sea King, he thought it was a great name, but King had blinked in complete unamusement when Luffy had declared that would be his name. But what else was he supposed to call him? With a little ‘hup!’, Luffy sat up criss cross and turned to face King who made a short chuffle.

**_‘Perhaps don’t bite off more than you can chew.’_ **

Luffy frowned, crossing his arms, “It’s not fair for an _East Blue_ Sea King who tried to eat a yonko to say that.” King makes a sound resembling a snort. 

**_‘That hasn’t happened yet so it_ is _fair.’_**

“Hmph.” Luffy continued to pout, until his stomach growled loudly. Luffy fell back with a sway and clutched his stomach, “Hungryyyy… I’m tired of frogs and weird mushrooms already…” 

**_‘And bugs'_ **

“And bugs.” Luffy nodded—then yelped when a strong pinching sensation spikes on his finger. He quickly brought it up to his face to see a crab dangling off of it. Luffy forcefully pulls it off before staring at it helplessly dangle and try to pinch him again. Luffy stood up, turned the crab upside down, and hardened his knee with armament haki, just to knee full force into the poor crab. Luffy frowned when gross mushy meat dirtied his hands, having spilled out from the crab. He shook it off before breaking off the legs with a huff. “Yosh. Dinner.” 

 

**_‘Seems like a rather unsatisfying dinner.’_ **

“Well I have no choice, Sanji’s not here to cook for me...I miss his cooking, I want meatttt..!” Luffy whined before beginning to gather twigs he deemed suitable for making a fire. King huffed, watching Luffy stab sticks through the crab legs and struggle to start the fire. 

_**‘Why not fish? You’re surrounded by water.’** _

“Can’t swim, never could, even before I got my fruit. I was real determined to learn back then so I could impress Shanks, but I ended up eating the fruit right before I could learn. I miss being rubber…” Luffy sulked, but lit up when he successfully started the fire. If only there was was some way to cook them faster…

**‘You’ve mentioned these Devil Fruits before, claiming you were a user of one on multiple occasions, but I’ve never seen anything resembling one before. Well, not that I’ve been in many other places beside here. I'm more curious on how you can understand me though, considering I've never met a human who could.'**

“I can understand you cause of “The Voice of All Things” or whatever. It used to hurt my head sometimes, but you’re not loud or all that strong so I’m good.” Luffy snapped a leg in half, chewing on the meat inside with a small frown. It wasn't enough meat...boy did Luffy wish Sanji was here right now…bet Sanji could find a way to even make this single crab taste heavenly! Too bad Luffy had no clue how to do that himself.

 _ **‘Was that an insult?’**_ King seemed to smirk, his countless fangs being shown off as he stood up tower over Luffy, _**‘I could easily eat you right now if I wanted to. And if I’m weak, what does that make you?’**_ Luffy swallowed down his food before replying with,

“Really weak.” He reached for the other leg, “It’s kinda a shame that all my strength from my training is gone now, but I don’t think it went to waste. Besides, if losing all my strength and throwing me back to the beginning means I get to see my nakama alive again, then that’s fine.” 

_**‘Again with your “nakama”. You said that you're most likely all scattered up, but do you even have the slightest hint on where they’re at?’** _

“Barely.” _Munch munch munch munch munch_ , “Well, I have a general idea where some are, or will be in the near future at least. Though, finding them will be difficult...stuff like this normally requires a plan, and I’m no good at those. Plans are for smart people like Robin or Torao.” 

_**‘Tiger?’** _

“No, _Torao_ ” _Munch munch munch, gulp, _“My husband.”__

  


~x~

  


1511  
M:3  
D:2

 

“Happy 8th birthday, failure.” Niji, the shitty blue haired bastard taunted, an annoyingly haughty smirk plastered on his face. 

“What’s wrong? Gonna cry?” Yonji, despite being _younger_ than Sanji was—both before and after the time travel—added, arms crossed. Ichiji was there as well, standing tall with his nose up in the air as if looking down on Sani. But Sanji was no more than slightly irked, being far too used to this already. Instead of snapping, he calmly ate the food that was served to him at the usual time, a guard was standing outside, ready the cell to lock the helmet whenever he was done. Niji and Yonji weren’t too happy with being ignored—not that Sanji cared. Niji kicked the bars with a snarl. 

“Don’t ignore us!” He barked, bars denting slightly from his superhuman strength. Sanji sighed, and turned to Niji saying, 

“So annoying... don’t you have something better to do besides mess with me? Or do you just have that much free time, huh, _Big Brother?_ ” That last part was on purpose, and it definitely did its job at pissing Niji off. Niji growled, bars twisting under his grip. 

“Where the hell did you pull that confidence from, failure?” Sanji took another bite of his food, ignoring Niji’s death glare. 

 

“I wonder.” He shrugged, uncaring. 

“Oi,” Ichiji turned to the guard, finally speaking instead of just standing there like a shitty statue, “open the gate.” 

“Yes sir.” The guard automatically replied, both lifeless and emotionless like the robot they were created to be. The gate slowly creaked open as Sanji’s three brothers walk in, cracking their knuckles to seem imitating. It didn’t work. 

“Did you finally go insane being locked in here?” Niji placed his hands on his hips and bent down to Sanji who was sitting on the floor. 

Sanji didn't reply, so Niji kicked the little wooden table Sanji was eating on, sending the rest of his food flying. 

**“I said, don’t ignore us.”** Niji repeated before grabbing Sanji by his collar and lifting him up to eye level. Sanji swallowed his food, the _last_ of his food, and turned to Niji. 

“Do you know how much effort the cooks went to make that? The time and dedication it took? How much a starving man would kill for a meal like that?” Sanji asked, but Niji merely raised a brow.

“Ah? What the hell are you saying?” He lifted Sanji up further, but Sanji showed no resistance. The only movement he made was slowly raising his arm, wrapping his hand around Niji’s wrist. 

“I’m saying…” Sanji tightened his grip full force, glare strong enough to kill a man, **“Don’t waste food, you shitty lightning rod bastard.”** Niji snapped and kneed Sanji with enough force to break the ribs of a normal man. Good thing Sanji wasn't exactly a normal man, having practiced Armament Haki the most he could for moments like these. He could only use it in small areas though, so Sanji could only grit his teeth and let himself get thrown against the stone walls of his confinement, unable to protect his entire back. The beating issued, but Sanji never let out a single cry—or even a grunt—of pain. His brothers had punched, kicked, and thrown until they grew bored and left with a spat in his direction and a click of their tongues. Ichiji and Niji both called Sanji a failure on the way out, but Sanji still made no response, even after the gate slammed close and he was left alone to lie on the ground. Well, alone except for—

"I see you didn't cry when they beat you up this time. Any reason for the sudden change in personality? Did you finally decided to stop crying so much?" Reiju said, crossing her arms. Sanji couldn't stop the smile from forming on his lips, not that he wanted to anyways.

"As if their shitty attacks could make me cry.” Sanji scoffed before adding, “I know a shitty old geezer who can kick harder than they could ever hope to achieve." 

"That so?” Reiju obviously hadn't believe him, but that was fine, “You happy to turn older?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Not really. Stopped caring years ago." Sanji sat up with a grunt, popping his neck the best he could with the limited flexibility given to him in the helmet. 

"Look at you, sounding all tough.” Reiju sighed out, hands now on hips, “What's up with you recently? I don’t really care if you finally went insane or something, but it’s weird to hear so suddenly." Sanji shrugged,

"Maybe being locked up in this shitty place makes you age faster. I feel like I'm in my 20's." Was all he offered.

"Geezer." Reiju grumbled. Sanji flinched and clenched his jaw, biting back a snappy retort. Yeah. _That_ hurt worse than the beating. 

"Anyways, making fun of you isn't what I came here to do." She added, causing Sanji to raise a curly brow. 

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Happy 20th-whatever birthday, since you're apparently not 8 anymore." Reiju scoffed, turning to leave just as quickly as she had appeared.

“Thanks.” Sanji called out to her, but she didn't reply, nor turn around. She only continued to walk away, heels tapping and echoing off the stone walls. 

"I mean it," Sanji called out louder, walking up to the bars and grabbing them, "Thanks." He repeated. 

"Don't get the wrong idea," Reiju started, still not turning around, "This doesn't mean I'm on your side." Her voice was cold, harsh almost. But even so, Sanji smiled.

"I know." He replied, softly. Reiju stood still for a few moments, but never turned around. Soon enough, as if she had said nothing at all, she went on her way and left, leaving Sanji alone again. But even though he was alone, Sanji's smile never disappeared. He lied back down against the dirty stone floor, fiddling in his pockets for a nonexistent cigarette.

  


"I know that you're lying, that's why I'm so thankful. It would've been worse for past me if you didn't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bird...could it be..? Yes! It's Bird! Bird is here again, please welcome Bird. She'll be here for awhile, so show her some love please. And for awhile I mean...quite a long while.
> 
> Torao's been mentioned, and their relationship is revealed! Err... Not really revealed for original version readers ig, since it's the same. Can't wait to show the Corazon + Law interactions w Luffy already, but pacing!
> 
> Speaking of pacing, I'll try my best for both old and new readers alike! I checked the publish date of the original and God, I can't believe it has really been so long since my first real fic! Thank you everyone for being so patient,,, I'll try my (extra) best this time around.


	5. I'm strong!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oopsies, updating before schedule. I'm bored and at home, but I'm tired n don't feel like writing. A real nice Luffykin betad this ch for me, catching most of the tense changes i had in this chapter, so thanks for that! 
> 
> **There will be no extra chapter on Wednesday,** I'm just bored. But I mean, if I'm messing up my schedule rn, better early than late right? End notes will be really long so...they're in the end.

1511  
M:3  
D:??

“Whoop! Shishishi!” Luffy made a sidestep to avoid the dive of an angry fox he’d been attempting to hunt. Planting his foot firmly on the ground, Luffy gripped the makeshift staff (that was really just a tree branch) and covered it in haki, grinning. “Too slow!” He whacked the poor animal midair, sending it flying and smacking onto a nearby tree. Luffy snickered when it stayed down. 

 

“Alright! I got dinner!” He cheered, thwacking the branch in his hand with a hum, “Hnnnnnn...punching is more fun but I don’t got my fruit yet. I hate having to do Gramp’s training when he’s not even here, but there’s no choice if I wanna get stronger…man. I wish there was an iron pipe around here somewhere instead.” Luffy muttered on, dragging the dead animal behind him.

“Ohhh! Or alligator! Too bad there ain't any here, I'm really craving some different meat. Hm, but I used to always get eaten by them back then and Sabo and Ace would—” Luffy stopped, turning to face Mt. Corvo in the far distance, “Sabo and Ace...I wonder if they’re still there?” The ‘staff’ shuffled around awkwardly on his shoulder. They should be, right? It’s the past so Ace should still be alive...but they probably don’t remember him and Luffy couldn't cross those huge mountains the way he was now. 

“This sucks.” He huffed, “Maybe I’ll ask Gramps to take me there whenever he comes back. Now that I think about it, how long ago did he leave?” He blinked for a few moments, thinking and clinking his head side to side. Luffy’s head gradually turned red, steam coming from his ears before he shrugged with an “Oh well”. The walk back to ‘camp’ was quiet. Even more so when he found that King wasn’t there. Maybe he was sleeping or swimming around elsewhere. Luffy really—and he means _really_ —wanted to try riding on King’s head. But the big mean fish wouldn’t let him. Said something along the lines of _’maybe when you can actually beat me, until then, I refuse.’_. Jerk. This place was so boring, he wanted _something_ to do at least. He didn’t have any of his friends and he couldn’t see his brothers (or future brothers, at least). It... wasn't really fun.

“Am I the only one who remembers? Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out..!” Luffy grinned and punched into his open palm, cracking his knuckles, “Get strong enough to find everyone!” His stomach growled, and Luffy immediately began starting a fire. 

“But first, food.”

  


~x~

  


1511

M:3  
D:14

“OI!” A small green haired boy by the name of Zoro banged on the doors of a dojo, smirking when the door slid open for him. Behind the door was a black haired man wearing a gray yukata, the mark of two red swords over where the heart laid. They looked down on the little boy, tilting their head ever so slightly. 

“May I help you?” He asked, voice kind. Zoro? Not so kind.

“Yah! I heard someone strong was here, strong enough to beat adults! I’m here to challenge them!” Zoro haughtily replied, nose up in the air (and not just to look up at the taller adult). The adult hummed, as if troubled by the others demand. 

“...This is a dojo which practices the way of the sword. Are you a swordsman?” He asked. Zoro frowned,

“Of course!” Why else would he be here? Really, adults could be so stupid sometimes. 

“Where are you from? Who is your teacher?” The adult continued to ask, making Zoro’s frown worsen. Adults could be both stupid _and_ ask just as dumb questions it seemed. None of this crap mattered, he just wanted a battle!

“None of your business!” Zoro barked, “Is the strong person here or not?!” 

“I’m here.” A new voice said behind the adult, and Zoro watched as a girl stepped forward. He examined her confident posture, along with the bamboo sword in her hand. Zoro felt his frown turn into a smirk. 

“So you’re the one? The name’s Roronoa Zoro, I’m here to challenge you!” The girl scoffed at his declaration. 

“I heard you, you’re a lot louder than you think. Also, why should I accept? There’s nothing in it for me.” She haughtily placed a hand on her hip, looking down on Zoro. That didn’t make Zoro too pleased to know. He let out a growl, grin quickly reverting to a snarl,

“What? Don’t be a coward! I don’t have anything to give either, all I have are my swords!” Zoro retorted, and it was true. He was dirt broke, not a berri on him. He even left his swords behind—which was totally on purpose by the way—so all he had was the ratty and dirtied clothes on his back. 

“I don’t want money, nor your swords, I’m just saying I have no reason to accept your challenge.” She replied. Huffing, Zoro crossed his arms and refused to give in. If Zoro was anything, he was stubborn. And he had yet to meet someone who could beat him in that. ~~Sweet sweet ignorance.~~

“Hmph! Then, if I can beat someone from this dojo, will you accept my challenge? It could be an adult for all I care!” 

“Let’s say you get to fight against me, what will you do if you lose?” 

“Huh? If I lose?” Zoro stopped to think about it. He hadn’t considered the possibility of him losing. But he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to think about it, “Uhhhh… I’ll become a student here!” Honestly, he’d prefer _not_ to do that, but it shouldn’t be a problem, since he won’t lose. He’s strong, and he’s only going to become even stronger! Beating this supposed strong person was just another stepping stone for his goal!

“In what way does that benefit—”

“Sure.” The older man said, cutting off the blue haired girl, “Having another student couldn’t hurt. Especially if they’re already knowledgeable in swordsmanship and as determined as you are.” 

“Of course I’m determined! I’m gonna become the World’s Greatest Swordsman!!” Zoro said, confidently straightening his posture and jamming his thumb to point towards himself. He heard the girl laugh, making his eye twitch, “What’s so funny?” He growled. 

“As if someone as puny as you could become the World’s Greatest Swordsman.” The girl turned around with a ‘Hmph!’ that made Zoro’s blood boil. 

“What did you—”

“Now now, please calm down.” The older man tried to calm him, “Are you willing to try a spar against one of my students? I’m sure Kuina will accept your challenge if you win.” 

“Kuina?” Zoro looked up. 

“That’s her name, Kuina. And I'm Koshiro, both Kuina’s father and head of this dojo.” Zoro had thought the name rung a bell somehow, but nothing came up. So he ignored the feeling, supposing he just heard it somewhere around the area.

“Huh. You sure don’t look like a master swordsman.” Koshiro chuckled, unminding of Zoro’s rude remark. “Hey old guy, is that Kuina girl really that strong?” Zoro continued, following Koshiro who led him inside.

“Kuina is able to defeat most adults without a problem.” Koshiro replied smoothly, not missing a beat. Almost like a scripted line he had prepared for questions like Zoro’s. At the time though, he didn’t really notice that. 

“So that means she’s strong, right? That’s perfect.” Zoro smirked to himself, clenching his fists in excitement. He heard Koshiro chuckle again, but ignored it as they entered a large room filled with various students sitting on their knees, politely greeting Koshiro when they saw him. Zoro made himself seem taller, stronger. 

“We have someone who wishes to challenge Kuina, but before that, he needs to beat someone here. Do we have any volunteers?” A small bowl cut haired boy raised his hand, standing up and jutting his chin out. He went up to Zoro with an odd almost waddle-like walk and crossed arms, probably in some pitiful attempt to look threatening. 

“Huuuuh?” The boy drawled out in a fake low voice, “A challenger? I’ll take him on, sensei!” The boy forcefully shoved his forehead against Zoro’s, in a way that was somehow both annoying and familiar. Zoro snapped and pushed back with a feral snarl.

“Ahhh, calm down you two!” Koshiro spluttered, grasping their shoulders and easing them apart. Zoro and the boy still glared and growled at each other though despite Koshiro's best attempts to calm them. Zoro had then decided that he was going to completely _destroy_ this brat in the spar. He didn't know what about him pissed him off so much, he hardly knew the brat. Just something about his attitude ticked him off. Zoro thoroughly glared at the kid the entire walk over to the bamboo sword filled bucket.

“Two swords are fine, right?” Zoro asked, reaching for two.

“Hmph! So weak you gotta rely on two swords instead of one, huh?” Zoro _immediately_ threw a sword back in, glowering at the boy,

“I can take on a weakling like you with one sword no problem!!” Zoro then got into position with his sword as the other did the same. How _dare_ this brat call him a shitty swordsman! 

“Who are you calling a weakling you—” Koshiro clapped loudly, stopping the two from continuing their argument. 

“You two! Stop fighting! The match will now issue, please get into your positions!” He ordered. The boy replied with a respectful apology bow, but Zoro merely grunted and reluctantly did as he was told to do. “Now then, begin!” They both charged at each other, bamboo swords clashing on contact. Zoro kept a firm grip on his sword, he may not have been that great at the one sword style...but it was more than enough for a weakling like him! 

“Take this!!” Zoro practically roared. He used all his strength to make a horizontal slash towards his opponents sword, smacking it right out of their grip. Zoro couldn’t help but smirk when the brat's eyes widened. The room grew silent, which had only made the clatter of the fallen sword louder. Koshiro raised a single hand towards Zoro,

“Single blow! Match over! The winner is Zoro!” The rooms filled with gasps as Zoro’s opponent stared at their empty hands in disbelief. 

“Hah! I’m starting to wonder if this Kuina girl is really all that strong if it was that easy to win!” 

 

“Say that _after_ you beat me.” The girl, Kuina, said, stepping up to Zoro’s view. Grinning, Zoro raised his sword and brought it down with a fell swoop, pointing it towards her challengingly. 

“Finally ready to spar?” He asked. Kuina said nothing as she walked to her spot with her sword, staring at Zoro. Although it irked him to be ignored like that, Zoro grumbled and stepped back into his spot, both now in position. Whatever. As long as he gets to beat this 'strong person.'

“The match between Kuina and Zoro will now start, please get into your positions!” Koshiro repeated, turning to both of them. 

“Not going to grab a second sword?” Kuina seemed to almost taunt, but Zoro scoffed. 

“Don’t need it!” Unknowing to him, he was right. ~~Because having a second or even a third sword wouldn’t have made a difference.~~

“Begin!” Zoro charged at the unmoving Kuina, raising his sword high and ready to attack full force. This should be over quick, Zoro thought to himself. And, well, he wasn’t wrong. With a loud clack, his sword was swatted away like mere flies.

“Single blow! Match over! The winner is Kuina!” Koshiro declared right as Zoro’s sword fell to the ground. Zoro took a step back, staring at the bamboo sword that was once in his grip. 

 

“No way…” He muttered, jumping slightly when Kuina’s sword breezed by him, tip pointed at his face. 

“What? You’re weaker than I thought.” She scoffed, and Zoro’s blood _boiled_. Furious, he shouted,

“Rematch! Let me use two swords this time!” 

“Sure. It won’t change anything.” ~~If only he knew then how right she was.~~ Zoro stormed over to pick up his fallen sword and then grabbed another, returning to his spot before once again getting into position. This time with a near death grip on his swords. Dammit! He’s strong! He’s going to become the World’s Greatest Swordsman! He can’t lose...he has to win!! 

“The rematch between Kuina and Zoro will now start! Please get into your positions! Begin!” Zoro let out another loud warcry and charged. His first overhead slash was easily blocked, so he attempted to hit her with his other sword. However, Kuina merely shoved the sword she’s blocking back—making Zoro lose his footing—and took a simple step backwards to dodge the second slash. She then raised her own sword up high, and hit Zoro’s head. Hard. 

“OW!!” Zoro cried, dropping both his swords. 

“Single blow! Rematch over! The winner is Kuina!” Zoro whipped his head towards Koshiro in shock, then to his swords on the ground. He...lost? With both swords?! 

“No matter how many swords a weakling uses, it won’t change the end result.” Kuina huffed, as if reading his mind. Zoro, knowing how pathetically he lost, could only grit his teeth.

“Dammit..! Fine! I admit my defeat! But I’m the man who will become the World’s Greatest Swordsman! So I’ll keep training and training...and one day defeat you!” Kuina looked at him, saying nothing as her hard gaze met his. After a few moments, Kuina turned around and rested her sword on her shoulder.

“See if you can try.”

  


~x~

  


1511  
M:3  
D:23

“It's only been a little over a week but Zoro’s gotten so strong...” One boy muttered, barely heard by his friend beside him over the loud thwacking of bamboo swords. The friend beside him gulped and nodded,

“Yeah… but…” They start, right as a particularly loud thwack and _“GAH!!”_ followed. 

“...He still can’t beat Kuina.” He sighed, watching Zoro as he fell to his knees.

“One blow! That’s enough, the winner is Kuina! Currently 34 wins for Kuina and 0 wins for Zoro!”

“Dammit!!” Zoro threw his swords on the ground, “Why does she only seem to get _stronger_?!?!” He took a few heavy breaths before gathering his swords and storming towards the exit. 

“What? Throwing a fit?” Kuina taunted after him.

“No! Going to train!!” He yelled back just before slamming the door shut. Dammit…dammit dammit dammit dammit _dammit!!!_ Why can't he win?! It wasn't supposed to be like this! He was supposed to be _strong_! 

“That girl has it coming…I _will_ beat her! I'm…I'm the man who will become the World's Greatest Swordsman!!” A voice, of someone somewhere whispering something ~~(what, he could only guess)~~ sounded in the back of his head. But over his frustration, Zoro heard nothing. 

“Just wait… I'll become stronger than her soon!!" He told...someone. Himself? ~~But to this~~ —...— ~~even now~~ —...

…

~~Could he really?~~

  


.x.

  


1511  
M:3  
D:23  
**(Same day)**

Luffy was dreaming. It was a nice dream. Everyone was there, alive and happy. It was a party, filled with delicious food cooked by Sanji who twirled around the relaxing Robin and Nami. Brook was playing music and Chopper and Usopp seemed to be having fun dancing together to it. Zoro easily drank enough to kill 20 men as he forced Torao and his crew to join in. Even Jinbei seemed to be having fun. Everyone was happy. Luffy really liked that dream. 

Too bad he had to snap hinself awake and jump away from his spot, having sensed something somehow worse than killing intent. The ground he was previously sleeping on before cracked and shattered, crushed under the large fist that smashed into it. What—Luffy froze when he looked up and saw who exactly the towering figure over him was. Oh. Crap.

“Ho? I'm surprised you managed to dodge that, Luffy.” Garp said, straightening up and cracking his knuckles, “I was right about leaving you in this forest to get stronger after all.” 

“Gramps?! What are you doing here?! You've been gone forever!!” Luffy all but yelped, already preparing himself for the guaranteed future "Fists of Love" ahead.

“Forever? You're overreacting. It's only the 23rd. So I've only left you here for…" Garp trailed off, looking elsewhere before losing interest, "Well, it doesn't matter. Anyways, I've returned to see how strong you've become in our short time apart. Now then,” Luffy, sensing the same danger as before, tried to escape. Unfortunately, Garp caught him before he could even try. 

“let's begin.” He was heaved up to the eye level of a grinning Garp before being carelessly dropped back down. He could see it. No, sense it! He could sense the way Garp was gonna punch!

...But being able to sense something and being able to _dodge_ something were two entirely different things.

… 

“Gramps...I’ll die...I’ll really die if you keep hitting me this hard…” Luffy sulked, being dragged back to where he guessed was Foosha. He really wasn’t happy, he was hungry and his sleep was disrupted. 

“Hmph! It’s just proof that you need more training!”

“Well...yeah, but…” 

“But nothing! Remember, this is all to become a fine marine! It’s for your own good.” Garp grumbled out the last bit, grip tightening around Luffy’s shirt. Luffy sighed, looking up and watched a bird fly by. Why would he join something what would kill him the moment they found out who his dad is? And worse, order him around to control him. He wanted to be free, together with his friends. Creating chaos along the way was just the cherry on top. Huh. Cherries…

“I’m hungry.” Luffy said, craning his neck back to look up at Garp.

“Hn? I swiped lots of food from the navy again, so you can eat as much meat as you want! It’s your reward for dodging my punch.” Luffy beamed and threw up his arms,

“Really?! Thanks, Gramps!!”

  


.x.

  


“Hey Gramps?” Luffy spoke, pausing from his inhalation of food. It sucked not being rubber anymore. He could still eat lots, but not as much as he could with his rubber stomach. Nor could he fit much of food in his normal human cheeks or snag faraway food. 

“Huh?” Garp crunched through a bone, chewing on it alongside the meat. Luffy gulped down more food, grateful for something other than tough fox meat or frogs. He had occasionally caught some deer, but unfortunately, it wasn’t often. He turned to Garp once the last of the meat went down,

“Why do you want us to become marines?” Luffy cocked his head to the side, causing Garp raise a brow. 

“ “Us”?” He quoted, throwing in another piece of meat. Luffy wished he could eat more too.

“Me and Ace.” Luffy further explained. 

“Pah, you wouldn’t understand.” Garp waved a dismissive hand, “Your head is too filled with that stupid idea of becoming a pirate. Where did you learn such nonsense in the first place?” 

“It’s not stupid! And Shanks taught me!” Luffy jumped up to defend Shanks despite the discomfort in his stomach. He barely picked up on Garp's eye twitch from Shanks’ name. 

 

“Shanks? That red-haired brat? How the hell do you know him?” 

“I haven’t met him yet but I promised him I’d become a great pirate!” Or would it be ‘going to promise him’? Phrasing things while time was weird is hard. 

“Hmph.” Garp scoffed again, “How ridiculous.” He tore into another large piece of meat before throwing the bare bone into his mouth again. Well, Luffy had to pick up his bone eating habits from _someone_. His mouth watered as he glanced at the oh so juicy meat, but his normal human stomach seemed to twist at the mere thought of more food. Man. Not being rubber seriously _sucked!_ He only got down like, four servings!! 

“Hn? Now that I think about it, how do you know about Ace?” Garp asked. Luffy paused, trying to go back years upon years...ok not that long, but still awhile back in time to when he first met Ace. And if he remembered correctly, which he was pretty sure he did,

“You introduced me to him.” Luffy replied. Garp finished up the remainder of the food himself.

“Oh. I see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yo so I'm looking for betas, if ur up for it uhhh hmu on my discord _RR#5662_ or my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/rron_2k?s=09) if ya don't got discord. I'd prefer discord tho. 
> 
> UhhhHhHH as for what exactly I'm looking for ya to do, it depends on what ur up to do tbh. I'm looking for someone to catch my changes in tenses, typos, missing words or funky writing/writing that can be improved. Or even just opinions on the chapter/ideas. Just tell me which one ur willing to do. If you just wanna do something simple like catch typos or tenses, that's cool. If ur too busy to do it sometimes, that's cool too just let me know. Looking for 2-3 so there isn't just a bunch of work thrown onto one... 
> 
>  
> 
> As for Zoro's appearance: Pulled events sooner, no memories. Canonly, they wouldn’t have met until some point after 11/11/12 with Kuina dying some point in 1513. But...I’m not holding off writing him for that long.


	6. Set Sail! To Find the Pirate Q—To Find Torao!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was betaed by two lovely people! Thank you [cxasandt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cxasandt) for finding/fixing my tenses and [KittyCatCrunchie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyCatCrunchie/pseuds/KittyCatCrunchie) for fixing my writing! Seriously, you two saved me a lot of trouble <3
> 
>  
> 
> Ok, now off to read the entire book of Othello and hope I can remember everything to pass my essay final on it with a 90 or above, wish me luck, ig :')

1511  
M:3  
D:26

“STOP FLAILING AROUND AND LET ME BEAT YOU!!” Yonji snapped, grabbing Sanji’s wrists in an attempt to pin him down. 

“AS IF I WOULD LET YOU, SNOT HEAD!” Sanji tried to kick his chin, but only hurt his foot in the process. Damn artificial exoskeletons. 

“WHO’RE YOU CALLING SNOT HEAD, YOU FAILURE?!” Yonji’s grip grew painfully stronger, but he grit his teeth through the pain, having refused to give the brat the satisfaction of showing he was in pain.

“YOU, YOU SHITTY ONION HEAD BRAT!!” Despite having used full force, Sanji couldn’t wrench his precious wrists free. Dammit! If this little shit did _anything_ to his hands or wrists, he was _so_ dead! He went through literal fucking hell and he’d be damned if he let a little shit like _Yonji_ scare him.

“WE WERE BORN ON THE SAME DAY!” Yonji kicked him, but Sanji only stuck his tongue out in response.

“BLEHHH!! I’M STILL OLDER THAN YOU!!” He taunted, giving a rather pathetic kick to the other. Sanji cursed his pathetically weak body.

“SO WHAT?!”

“SO YOU SHOULD SHOW SOME RESPECT! AND LET GO OF MY WRISTS ALREADY!!”

“Like hell I’ll…” Yonji finally let go, only to curl his arm back for a punch. Sanji bit his lip as the fist connected, refusing to let out a single sound of pain. Even when he slammed head first against the stone wall. He heard Yonji snicker and, despite the black splotches dancing across his vision, Sanji could still see that cocky smirk plastered all over that kickable face.

“What’s wrong? Gonna cry?” Yonji sneered, eyes crinkling as he snickered. Sanji clenched his jaw tight, pushing himself up and giving Yonji the bird.

“You _wish_ your shitty attacks could make me cry.” Sanji would never admit that hot tears had formed in the corner of his eyes. Damn weak body. He’d taken way worse blows than this before. His body needed to man up already. 

“Tch. Shitty failure.”

“Shitty brat.” Sanji spat back, scoffing when Yonji went after him. Well, at least it was only Yonji, for whatever reason. Normally, Yonji and Niji only came along with Ichiji, following along with whatever he said like dogs trying to impress their owner. Maybe Yonji was just in a bad mood or something. Too bad Sanji wasn't strong enough to kick some sense into his head yet, if only he had regained his memories sooner...What was date again? The 25th? 26th? He'd ask a guard later. His thoughts were cut short as he crashed against the wall, failing to hold back a grunt. Being slow at activating haki was seriously annoying when he was so good at it before. Or later? Whatever. Where the fuck was Luffy anyways? He needed to find out what the hell his idiot captain pulled this time to cause all this shit.

“Given up already?” Yonji gave a kick that could never dream to compete with one of Zeff’s. Wow, must feel _real_ great kicking an already downed kid huh? Sanji clicked his tongue, not even bothering to face the other. 

“Shut up. I’m thinking.” Later, Sanji only bothered to curl up in order to protect his hands. He wouldn’t let someone like Yonji injure them. The bruises he got elsewhere were unimportant. They were nothing new, and would eventually heal in the future.

  


.x.

  


“And here I thought you matured, what happened, 20-year-old-geezer-san?” Reiju asked Sanji who was, at the moment, on all fours and punching the ground with inaudible grumbles. 

“Shut up. I'm angry at myself, why the hell don't I have control over my own emotions? Dammit…” Rolling over to his back, Sanji gave the ground one last punch (but not a hard one, he couldn't damage his hands after all), “I need a cigarette.” Reiju rose a brow.

“Since when did you smoke?” 

“Since I was around 10.” 

“You're 8.” She pointed out, making Sanji click his tongue. What a pain.

“Same thing.” He grunted. Reiju sighed, probably giving up on questioning him. Good. He was frustrated and he'd only be more so later, if he had taken it out on her. Reiju did nothing wrong but dammit! He was mad. Where was the shitty stress-relief-moss when you need him?

“Smoking at such a young age can't be good for you.” She drawled out sarcastically. Sanji rolled his eyes in reply.

“Neither can daily beatings.” He grunted out, sitting up and popping his neck (although it was difficult with the damn helmet), “Wonder why the hell Yonji came by himself…” He mumbled.

“He messed up on one of the daily training tasks. He was the only one to fail and got a scolding from Father.” Reiju supplied for him. Sanji clicked his tongue again.

“So he just used me for stress relief, huh? That shitty brat.” 

“Born same day.” Reiju pointed out, further irritating Sanji. She _really_ wasn't helping him remain calm.

“Shut up.”

  


~x~

  


1511  
M:4  
D:1

 

“Gramps! Gramps!” Luffy hopped, tugging on Garp's shirt to get his attention. 

“Huh?” Blinking, Garp turned to look down at Luffy. Luffy had just finished his training for the day, and was bidding his passing time by training with the iron pipe he asked Garp to give him a while back. Just like Luffy had guessed, it was really the only weapon he could somewhat use. Though, he'd still prefer his devil fruit over it any day. But that's not what important right now.

“How can I fight something way bigger than me?” Luffy asked. Without missing a beat, Garp replied:

“Punch them.” Luffy huffed, he was asking this cause he couldn't! At least, not yet.

“I used to inflate real big, or just punch real hard, but I can't do either right now. I can use haki, but that's not enough.” Luffy watched as Garp hummed, scratching his chin and examining him. 

“Depends on who and what exactly you’re fighting, and what you’re using to fight with.” Garp’s gaze turned to the iron pipe Luffy was holding, “I’m assuming you’re going to use that as a weapon?” Luffy held up the pipe in response.

“Yeah, Sabo taught me a few tricks a long time ago, and I still remember a few. Hafta make do until I have my fruit. And I’m gonna fight a Sea King!” Luffy chirped all too cheerfully. 

“A Sea King?” Garp’s brows furrowed.

“The small eel one by the shore! He’s not as big as other Sea Kings, but he’s still big compared to me. I just want to beat him up though, not kill him.” He explained, watching Garp’s face light up in recognition. 

“Oh right. I forgot about that thing. Fight but not kill, huh? Fighting that will be difficult for you at the moment...” Garp bent down and picked up a confused Luffy by the collar, “So you just need more training!” Luffy’s face fell.

“Ehhhhh?” Training was good and all but simply fighting against monkeys wasn't what he wanted...

“Don’t complain! I’ll teach you some ways you could fight it that won’t take much planning and will let you use your instincts more. Plans are a pain.” Garp picked his nose and dragged a beaming Luffy behind him. No confusing plans? Perfect!

“Thanks Gramps! Love you!” Luffy could see the grin stretching across Garp’s face, even from the angle he was in. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yup!”

  


.x. 

  


“Listen!” Garp yelled through a mouthful of meat, “To be prepared for any and all unexpected battles, you need to eat as much as you can whenever you have the chance!” He said, shoving an odd fruit into his mouth. Garp always told him and Ace this, and Luffy always followed it. As Luffy ate at a speed competing with Garp, a previously faded memory resurfaced. It was of Garp and Luffy doing the exact same thing, except with Ace. The familiarness of it all made Luffy nearly fight off a hand that wasn’t there. He still remembered when they used to fight over food. Luffy waited for the line he just _knew_ would come next. 

 

“This is important for being a navy soldier, remember that!” There it was. A smile tugged at Luffy’s lips, so wide it actually hurt. Then, In place of Ace who wasn’t there, Luffy said,

“If I became a marine soldier, I’d eat the whole food stock of the ship within a day.” And just as he did before, Garp let out that same hearty laugh. 

“Bwahaha! You’d be more troublesome than the pirates!” Luffy couldn’t help but snicker in agreement.

  


.x.

  


Luffy walked backwards, dragging his pipe along the ground and making a little trail with the tip. They were finally returning to Makino’s bar, which Luffy was incredibly thankful for. Juice sounded heavenly. He hummed an off-key song, content with how the day went. He got some decent training today done. And sure, he was a 'little’ bruised up from Garp’s training, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. As long as it’s not his Fists of Love, Luffy could take the usual damage from the insane activities Garp called training. He looked up and watched a bird fly by...it looked...eerily familiar to the one that attacked him a while ago. Hopefully it wouldn’t notice him—oh good, it went away. Whew. Relaxed once again, Luffy continued his song, before halting briefly in realisation. 

“Ah. It’s Usopp’s birthday.” He realized. 

“Hn? Who?” Garp turned around but continued his walk. Luffy followed suit. 

“A friend. Man this sucks, everyone's all scattered up so we can’t celebrate anyones birthday together!” Luffy huffed in frustration, before his frown quickly morphed into a smile “Well, I guess we just gotta throw a huge party when everyone gets together again, to make up for everything!” ...Then he paled. Because what was rapidly flying towards him was the giant—

 

“BIRD!” He yelped, raising his pipe as the same giant bird from earlier came diving towards him, sunlight reflecting off of its sharp beak much like a blade. He swiftly swung his pipe down at just the right moment. The bird fell, a bump already forming on its head. Luffy sighed, watching the sprawled out bird lie motionless on the ground. Luffy thought, key word, _thought_ he was in the safe, until the bird suddenly jumped up with a shrill screech, wings now spread and feathers puffed out in sheer fury. Luffy was about to run, or scream, or most likely both. Until he remembered something. He had better control over his haki! And he had an iron pipe! So unlike before, he could fight! Alright..!

 **“Ah? What’s this? Dinner?”** The bird froze, looking up in a slow, almost robotic motion. The moment its eyes locked with Garp’s, sweat glistened on its feathers. It took a step back, then two. Garp took half a step forward. The effect was instantaneous, leaving Luffy to watch as the bird flew away with a choked out squawk. It crashed into a few trees from its rushed takeoff, but it didn’t stop. Nor did it turn around. 

“Aw...I was gonna fight it.” Luffy pouted, shoulders slumping in disappointment.

“It can't be worth much of a fight if it runs off without one.” Garp grunted. 

“Mmmmm... Nah. Gramps is just scary. I'd run too.” Garp let out a laugh, not offended in the least. Instead, he just scooped Luffy up and slung him over his shoulder. 

“Alright, let's go, Makino is waiting.” He said. Luffy reached over to Garp's other shoulder, he had to curve a bit awkwardly, but he managed to reach it. Crawling over with one hand on Garp's head, Luffy managed to sit on Garp's shoulders, tiny legs barely wrapped around his Gramp’s broad neck. Luffy felt taller like this, and stronger, like he was riding a big tiger or something (except, Garp was far stronger than any tiger could ever be). So raising his pipe up high, Luffy cheered atop Garp's shoulders.

“To Makino's place!”

  


~x~

  


1511  
M: 4  
D:2

Luffy stretched out with a loud yawn, jaw popping in the process. He rubbed his eyes and blearily blinked his sleep away, kicking his blanket off and dragging himself downstairs, with only the smell of food driving him. He waddled over to the stool; the scent of eggs and plenty of bacon filled his nostrils. Drool formed in his mouth as he attempted to crawl up and onto the stool. He settled for hopping onto it after it almost toppled back from his efforts. 

 

“Oh, good morning, Luffy. Up already?” Makino greeted, serving Luffy a plate full of bacon and eggs (mostly bacon) which immediately woke him up. Luffy quickly snatched the fork and began shoveling the food into his mouth. He paused for a second only to return the greeting. He had to remember manners, after all. 

“Yeah, mornin’!” He greeted, continuing to wolf down the food. There was an itch at the back of his head, like something he was supposed to know or remember, but couldn't. How annoying, he just wanted to enjoy his food right now…It had something to do with a bird or something? Maybe that big bird that keeps chasing him? Or a bird he feels like eating? Bird sounds nice right n—OH!

Luffy choked on his food, causing Makino to kindly offer his milk mug, which he gratefully accepted and downed to the last drop. 

“Are you alright? You shouldn't eat so quick—”

“I FORGOT ABOUT BIRD GUY!!” Luffy exclaimed, slamming the mug down. Makino blinked. 

“Bird guy?” 

“I almost forgot!! I NEED TO SAVE HIM—AHHH BUT I HAVE NO SHIP!!! WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO?!?!” Luffy dug his fingers into his hair, clutching it. If this really was the same past as before, then everything happens again! But all he knew was island names and the ocean which it happens in! Nami jammed some basic map reading skills into him, but he's no navigator. Plus the no ship part—oh wait!

“That's right! King!!” Luffy gasped, ignoring Makino's confused gaze. Ah but King said he'll only let him ride him if he beats him…he'll just have to do it! There's no choice! Now determined, Luffy put the remainder of his food in his mouth and bowed. 

“Thank you for the food.” With that said, Luffy jumped off the stool and ran upstairs to grab his pipe, simply jumping off the staircase rather than actually using it. “Cya! I'll be gone for awhile, a few days; maybe a week or two. Anyways, gotta go! Bye!” He heard something, probably a question, but he ran out of the bar far too fast to catch it. Welp. Hopefully it wasn't too important. Luffy was determined to make it to the forest and find King as soon as possible, until Gyoru called out to him.

“Yo, Luffy! What got you in such a hurry? Garp chasing ya again?” Luffy skidded to a halt, reaching to hold down his hat by habit. He settled for pushing the hair out of his face instead, considering he didn't have his hat yet. 

“Nope! Luckily. I actually haven't seen him today. Did Gramps leave already?” Luffy asked, cocking his head to the side. 

“Who knows? That man comes and goes as he pleases. But anywho, if Garp ain't chasing ya, what's the hurry?” Gyoru asked, propping his chin on his palm with a grin. 

“I had to hurry and leave to rescue the Not-Mingo—” Luffy paused, eyeing the fish hanging out on display. Gyoru noticed this and perked up.

“What? Hungry?” Luffy hummed, thinking. Yeah he could eat if he wanted to, but time was short, especially because he doesn't know the exact date things happen. Plus something was bothering him, and it felt like the all-too-familiar voice of Nami was yelling at him for something. To remember something before leaving? But what?

“Oh. I need provisions.” He realized. While the East Blue was certainly no Grand Line and rather simple to sail in, it's not like he has the East Blue burned into the back of his hand. Wait, or was the saying supposed to be back of his head? Both? Either way, maybe Nami did. A burn sounded painful though, hopefully Nami didn't actually burn it into the back of her head or hand...he's getting sidetracked. 

“Provisions?” Gyoru rose a brow before pausing. He laughed, “You ain't thinking of sneaking off and setting sail on your own, are you?” 

“Geh—” Wait hold on, he can do this, “I'm not setting sail, I don't even have a ship!” Good! He did it! He still can't lie, but he can avoid the truth by…telling the truth? Avoiding the lie? Or was he avoiding the truth? Luffy frowned as his head began to hurt, this was confusing. 

“Ho? Really?” The man stepped back and crossed his arms, seemingly believing Luffy. Most likely because he knew Luffy couldn't lie to save his life. And, well, he wasn't wrong. “So whatcha need provisions for? Training?” 

“Mmmmmm I'm gonna be gone for awhile, ‘n I need food.” 

“Gone?” 

“Yeah! I'm gonna go visit n' pick up a friend!” Luffy made a little hop, fist and pipe raised into the air. And for whatever reason— ~~someone later told him he was being teased—~~ Gyoru laughed again.

“I see I see! Have fun on your “adventure”! Make sure to take lots!” With one last hearty laugh, the man turned around and tossed a small crate near Luffy, whatever contents inside hitting against the wood. “Take that! Leftover fruits, on the house. You can carry that, yah? With all that training Garp makes you do n' all.” Luffy beamed and bolted over to the crate, tearing the lid off. He quickly scurried through and examined the contents—apples, pears, and even some oranges were inside! A few were slightly bruised, but no matter, after all, they were edible (and free!) 

“Yeah! Thanks Fish Ossan!” Luffy thanked, easily lifting the crate above his head and taking off, snickering when he heard a “It's Gyoru!!” fade away in the wind. It was easily replaced with a gleeful _shishishi!_

The crate hardly slowed his speed, and he made it to where he first met King in no time. King wasn't there, but that wasn't a problem, he'd be near. So, Luffy took a deep breath and yelled:

“KIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!” Birds fluttered away and small animals scattered. The ocean remained calm, small waves lapping at the rocks, curved from the constant force of the ocean. Luffy waited, and the ocean stilled. Then split. As if a volcano or bomb exploded, the water bursted up and sprayed salty mist into the sky. A grin stretched across Luffy's face from ear to ear. It was not a happy or playful grin, there was no _shishishi_ , or _yo!_ , nor a good natured wave. It was the one he wore in battle. Luffy threw the crate to the side, out of harm’s way, and cracked his knuckles, looking up at the large Sea King looking down on him. 

**_‘It doesn't look like you called me for a friendly conversation.’_ **

Luffy's grin stretched impossibly further, it hurt his non-rubber face, but he didn’t care. “Yeah.” He nodded, picking up his pipe and giving it a twirl, “I have somewhere I need to go, and I have no ship. You're my only option but…you said I'd have to beat you to earn the privilege of riding you, right?” 

**_‘I see. So that's what you've called me over for.’_ **

The beast seemed to make something akin to a grin; sharp, jagged fangs fully on display. It was a sight that would make any man—who wasn't used to the dangers of the Grand Line—either weak to the knees or send them running for their lives. But Luffy only got into position. _‘Don't blame me when you die…I won't hold back.’_ With an open jaw, King dashed forward like a bullet, aiming straight for Luffy’s small figure. It seemed he wasn't lying about not holding back. 

“That's exactly what…” With a quick sidestep, Luffy dodged and whacked King's head with a haki-coated iron pipe, “I wanted to hear!” King let out a grunt and backed away, before curling back his neck and snarling. 

_‘Listen, Luffy.’_ Garp's voice voice rung into Luffy's head, _‘You have two options. One, you can jump up from the start and ride it. Or, you can surprise it later by doing the same thing. You're both at an advantage and disadvantage.’_

King's neck uncurled in a burst, head becoming a blur towards Luffy. Luffy didn't jump, but instead, raised his pipe and smacked it down on top of King's head with just the right timing. Before the monster could even pull back with a cry of pain, Luffy dug the pipe into the soft flesh of the Sea King and catapulted himself onto King's head. This was risky, especially the not jumping out of the way part from earlier, but it was also the most effective. Now feeling Luffy on his head, King let out a roar which shook the water, making Luffy flinch and cover his ears. Luffy sensed what King was going to do next and grabbed onto the Sea King’s large fin, clutching it and bracing himself as King threw his head back, trying to throw Luffy off. 

“Whoop! I won't let you!” When Luffy felt like he wouldn't be thrown off, Luffy raised his pipe—the other hand still holding onto the fin—and began to hit King's anywhere he could with it. 

_‘What I mean by you being at both an advantage and disadvantage is,’_ Garp's voice returned, _‘you're at a slight advantage on land, seeing as it can't go there. But you need to be close to be able to hit it, and if you're on it flings you off, you'll either drown or get eaten. That's your disadvantage. Now that I think about it, the disadvantage is bigger than the advantage. Well, if you were strong enough you could just punch it and win, bwaha!!’_

King continued his unrelenting attempt at throwing Luffy off, but no one could beat Luffy in terms of stubbornness. He managed to get a few more decent hits in before sensing that King was going to dive into the water, and that wouldn't be good. Considering he can't swim and all.

So before King got that chance, Luffy gave one last hard hit and jumped off, now on land. King was in the water seconds later, and his body disappeared—but he was still there, Luffy could sense it. So Luffy clutched his pipe and stayed in position, making sure his haki would hold up against any blows. 

_‘Avoid the mouth no matter what, one chomp and you're done for. So either dodge it, or hit it away from you.’_

Luffy waited, sensing King getting as close as he could to the shore, before rising out of the water and propelling himself in a sharp-toothed lunge towards Luffy. _'I don't have enough control on my haki yet to use_ that _...so…’_ he pursed his lips as King drew closer, raising the pipe to his side. The moment King was close enough, Luffy swung his pipe like a baseball bat, using as much force as his current body had. A pained roar escaped King's gaping mouth as his head was smacked away. King kept his eyes shut as he remained in place, head swaying slightly as if he were dazed or stunned. Then, King shook himself off and opened his eyes, revealing blood-red irises. with sharp, slitted pupils. This time the roar was definitely one of anger. But Luffy remained calm, in fact, he got into a completely relaxed stance, shoulders and arms slack at his sides.

 

Even when King came at him with the intent to kill. 

 

 **“Sit.”** He ordered, voice loud and commanding. King froze in place, a quiet whimper at the back of their throat. They stared unblinkingly to Luffy, trembling before slowly backing up, forced to obey his order.

 

The order of a king. 

 

Right when Luffy thought King was going to run away—which would be bad, considering he needed him to get to where wanted to go—King blinked, and his eyes returned to normal. 

**_‘You were harder to catch than I thought.’_ **

“Shishishi!!” Luffy snickered, placing his hands behind his head, “I actually beat you in one hit before! Or later, I guess. But I can't do that right now, you were pretty hard to fight! I had a few close calls there!” With a little twirl of his pipe, Luffy placed it on top of the crate from earlier and heaved it up.

“Now then, you promised if I could beat you I can ride you, right? And I won! I have to go somewhere, but I have no ship, can you take me there? I need to leave now, or as soon as possible.” 

_**‘I suppose, you did win. And I'm guessing since you require my help, this place is far?’** _

“Yeah…” Luffy hummed, planting the crate on King's head, who had bent down to allow him to do so. Good thing the crate wasn't heavy, but even if it was, King shouldn't have had that much of a problem, “It's in the North Blue, so we'll have to cross the reverse mountain, I think? Hm. Maybe I should've bought a map… I got the general area around here memorized, but I guess we should still stop by an island for a map. It shouldn't be too difficult, this is a normal blue.” 

**_‘Reverse mountain?’_ **

“Super big mountain that leads to the Grand Line n’ the other Blues. It might be difficult or rough to cross it… But I think you can do it!” Luffy replied, hopping up on King's head and trying to find a way to balance both him and the crate. He settled for placing it in front of him, so he'd have something to lean on while also keeping it from falling off. 

**_‘This isn't going to be an easy trip, is it?’_ **

“Nope!” Luffy popped the 'p’, “But I gotta save Not-Mingo before it's too late! I don't remember the exact date, I don't think Torao even mentioned it in the first place.” 

**_‘So this is related to your mate, I suppose the trouble you're going through makes sense then.’_ **

“If possible, I'd like to help save as many as my friends’ important people as possible. Though, I know I can't save them all.” He was too weak right now, after all, “Alright...set sail!!!”

 

**_‘I'm not a ship.’_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some quick stuff about Sanji: 
> 
> In canon, he doesn't treat Reiju like he does to every other woman. Probably because she's his sister. While I don't recall him hitting/kicking her (not that I think he would, not because she's a woman but because his sister wasn't actually that bad to him as a child), he _has_ lashed out at her and been rude. So, I will not make him bend over for her and treat her like a goddess. 
> 
> As to why he couldn't control his emotions,,, well, while their memories are there, they're still in the same body. Meaning they have the same brain, the brain of children. There's not much of a change in Luffy cause,,, well there's not much of a difference from little Luffy and big Luffy anyway. ~~Though, that may change when he sees someone like his friends or brothers...who knows? Read on to find out.~~


	7. Adventure(?) On the Sea!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy's adventure with King during his trip to the North Blue. They run into a few jerks, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters a bit more of a world builder/giving the world some life, as I dont really want the whole story just to be focused on Luffy and co. Course there won't be any major or even significant OCs (aside from Bird, who doesn't appear here), but they'll be a few mob charas every now and then. 
> 
>  
> 
> ~~It also shows a bit of the effects seperating from his friends caused~~

1511  
M:4  
D:3

  


So the trip went by pretty well so far. No storms or falling into the ocean yet. Pretty smooth sailing, or well, riding, Luffy supposed. 

Except… He was running out of provisions. It had only been a bit over a day since he left Dawn Island, and by Luffy's vague memory, the next island wasn't until at least half a day away. Maybe he shouldn't have snacked on the fruits when he got bored. Sighing, Luffy lifted off the lid to see what's left over, only to sigh yet again. Fishing was unfortunately not an option. One, he didn't have a fishing rod. And two, the fish close enough for fishing were probably all scared away by King anyways. 

**_'I have to say, this wasn't how I planned on how to spend my time’_**

“Hnnn, I forgot sailing isn't as fun without people to fight or islands to explore. Too bad there's neither, nor time for the exploring part.” Pouting, Luffy reached in and grabbed one of the apples, tossing it up into the air for King to eat, which he did, with a loud snap of his jaw. 

**_‘I'd assume so. Do you really know where we're going?’_ **

“More or less, yeah. Sailed around here before, and this is a normal Blue so there's no weird suddenly going south even though you were going north before. But I guess it can't hurt to buy a map…but I don't have any money.” 

**_‘Then how will you buy it?’_**

“Hmmmm…” Luffy hummed, looking up at the sky, “I'm a pirate. I have a Pirate Pass, which means I can steal.” King made a chortling sort of noise from that, tail swishing above water, causing a little splash.

**_‘Well then, I myself am hungry. Ready?’_ **

“Sure! One sec though.” Wrapping one arm the most he could around the crate, Luffy clutched his pipe as tightly as he could with the same hand. The other hand went to grip at King's fin, body now lying flat on King's stomach. He took a deep breath and lightly tapped his foot against King. Seconds later, they plunged below water. Luffy was forced to squeeze his eyes shut from the water currents pushing against him, legs flailing as Luffy made sure to firmly hold onto King through it all. He felt King do a quick lunge, then he stopped. 

Opening his eyes and squinting against the blurriness, Luffy managed to make out the silhouettes of King's jaw with some sort of fish in it, helplessly flailing about. Blood stained the water red, slowly rising up until mixing with the water. Continuing his gaze up, Luffy stared at the distant light from above the water, a few small fish scurrying away from above. 

He's seen this sight, countless times. From a minor mis-aim of a gum gum rocket, to slipping off the ship’s rails. But unlike those previous times, Luffy didn't feel drained. The ocean didn't weigh him down nor did it suck all his strength away from him. It didn't try to leave him helpless until his friends saved him either. Because rather than sinking, Luffy floated. It was odd, not being an anchor. But if there was anything that hadn't changed aside from the still not being able to swim part, _He still can't breathe underwater._ He gave King a kick, just hard enough to gain his attention. King turned back, large fish still in mouth, before slowly beginning to swim up. Luffy held on patiently, watching as the light drew closer and closer until the water broke apart for them. He let out a loud exhale and gasped for air. 

**_‘Humans can't seem to hold their breath for long.’_ **

“I can't,” Luffy panted, catching his breath, “But Sanji and Zoro can. Especially Sanji. They're the ones who always save me when I fall overboard.” 

**_‘You're always surprisingly calm whenever you run out of breath, don't humans normally panic?’_ **

“Oh I'm used to drowning.” 

**_‘That's not something you should be used to, but it's not my problem. Just don't expect me to save you if you drown or fall off.’_ **

“Hm? Yeah that's fine.” Luffy nodded, wringing out his shirt, **“But if Torao or Not-Mingo falls in, save them, alright?”** He felt King shiver, speeding up his swimming ever so slightly.

**_‘... That doesn't sound like a request.’_ **

“Yeah. Cause it wasn't.” 

**_'I see.’_ **

  


.x. 

  


_  
'Sanji!! Meat!!’_

_'I get it already!! Just sit down and behave already, you shitty rubber!!’_

_'Shishishi!’ There was a faint pitter patter of hooves accompanied by soft footsteps as Chopper and Robin both entered the room._

_'Sanji! What's for dinner?’ The doctor cheerfully greeted, hopping a little with his enthusiastic wave._

_'The main dish is Grilled Sea King meat, it's almost done, but you can have this while you wait.’ Sanji strode over with a tray, handing a small sweet looking drink to Chopper, before getting down on one knee and offering a cup of tea to Robin, 'For you, my dear Robin-chwan.’ He said, voice smooth. Robin giggled with her usual 'Oh my’ before accepting the cup, giving Sanji her thanks and moving to sit at the table, Chopper by her side. Luffy suddenly slammed his hands on the table, exclaiming loudly and pointing to Robin,_

_‘Ah! No fair! Why does Robin and Chopper get something before I do?!’ He huffed, now repeatedly slapping the table. Sanji snapped his head back over to Luffy,_

_‘Because Robin-chawn and Chopper have table manners, unlike a certain shitty rubber!!’_

_'Boo!! I'm the captain!! I should be served fiiiirrrrstttttt!!!’ Luffy whined, beginning to throw a fit…that only earned him a roundhouse kick._

_'SHUT UP!’ Sanji yelled. Just then, the door creaked open, revealing a yawning green haired swordsman who seemed to have just woken up from a nap._

_‘Booze…’ Zoro mumbled, scratching the back of his head right before a kick came flying down on him, forcing him to block it with the sheath of one of his swords. ‘WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM DARTBROW?!?!’_

_‘STRESS RELIEF!!’_

_'Yoho! Everyone sure is lively today. It warms my heart.’ Brook takes a small sip of his tea before, “Ah. But I don't—’_

_‘Have a heart, yes, we know.’ Usopp completed for Brook, sweatdropping as he watched the cook and swordsman break out into a fight. Brook took another sip of his tea, calm, setting down the glass teacup with a soft clack._

_Then groveled on the floor, sobbing._

_‘You can't steal my line like that, Usopp-san…’_

_‘It's never too early for a fight for those two it seems.’ Jinbei commented, skillfully avoiding the battle as he entered the room, Franky tailing being him._

_'Aow! Those two could fight in their sleep if given the chance—’_

 

“A boy and a crate with possible provisions or money spotted at 6 o’clock!!” A voice hollered, snapping Luffy awake from his dream.

"Hm..." Luffy hummed, pushing himself up to sitting position. Zoro always got mad at him whenever he woke him up from his naps. He'd curse and grumble, maybe give him a good knock across the head or scretch his face apart. Was Zoro was having a good dream whenever he woke him up? 

If so, Luffy understood Zoro's irritation now. Frowning, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, blinking up at the nearby ship. It wasn't a big ship, a bit bigger than what Merry was, maybe. He didn't recognize the Jolly Roger (not that Luffy expected to), but he could at least tell they were pirates. 

“Ah? The hell you sayin’? This is the middle of the ocean, why would a damn brat be here?” Luffy heard a gruff voice say. He couldn't see the speaker from where he was at, though.

“W-Well, I don't know cap'n…” A more meek voice stuttered, probably a lackey or choreboy, “But there really is a kid there, on some sort of...raft? Or somethin’? Oh he's awake now, and looking at us. He seems no older than 7 or 8…should we just ignore him?” There was some annoyed grumbling which sounded from the more gruff voice, and footsteps drew closer until a guy with a goatee and pistol attached to his hip looked down from the deck. Huh. His goatee wasn't as cool as Sanji's or Torao's. 

“Kid.” They grunted. Luffy looked around, then realized the goatee guy was talking to him. Luffy stood up, cocking his head to the side,

“Yah?” 

“What's in the crate?” Luffy blinked and turned to the crate beside him, and honest, Luffy replied,

“Food.” Albeit a bit less than Luffy would have liked. He wondered if the goatee guy would give him some food, “Hey, you got any meat? I'm tired of fruits.” The man perked up.

“You got fruits in there?” He asked, eyeing the crate. 

“Uh-huh. I rather have meat, though.” The man seemed to ignore Luffy past his confirmation, and instead turned to his men, raising his hand.

“Steal it.” Luffy's brows furrowed at this. Steal what? His food? A frown formed on Luffy's lips as he reached for his pipe. These people were jerks. 

“Listen kid, hand over the crate and no one gets hurt. You shouldn't disobey grown-ups, alright?” The man sneered, and Luffy didn't like that sneer. He didn't like it one bit. Plus this jerk kinda reminded him of… What was his name again? Jam? Oh right, Blueberry Jam. Bit of a weird name for a pirate, but not his problem. Realizing he got distracted again, Luffy shook his head. 

“Don't wanna.” He stuck out his tongue to the man, earning a scowl. The man lowered his hand with a low _“do it.”_ Luffy dodged a bullet that zipped past him and shot into the water. His frown worsened. 

“This isn't a game you stupid brat. Listen, I'm a pirate, a wanted man. My head's worth 2,300,000 berri's. My crew and I won't hesitate to kill a kid so I'll give you one last chance—hand over the crate and no one gets…” Luffy said nothing, simply moving higher up King's head as they sat up, Luffy could practically hear the words die in the other’s throat when Kings eyes turned to them. 

**_'Who're they?’_** King made a low bubbling noise, his eyes a slight red, showing that he wasn't completely snapped, just irritated. Looked like he was just about as happy from being woken up in his sleep as Luffy was. 

“Jerks.” Luffy replied, now being the one to look down on them. The entire crew's knees—including the captain—gave out, the only sounds they made were the clattering of their teeth and little half choked out yelps. A sudden glower takes over Luffy's face, and he quickly jumped off of King's head, hooking his pipe on King's teeth and covering his other arm in Armament Haki. A loud clang sounded as a bullet bounded off of Luffy's arm, and he slowly turned to the trembling lackey holding a pistol. The temperature seemed to drop several levels, Luffy's eyes somehow both blank and furious. 

**“Did you just try to shoot King?”** The lackey screeched, dropping the pistol and tried to scurry back. 

“I-Im s—” The lackey fell, mouth foamed and eyes blanched. Luffy kicked forward, swung back, and flung himself onto the ship deck. He wasted no time in beating the remainder of the crew up. He heard King huff behind him. 

_**'A rather rude bunch.’**_

“Yeah,” Luffy agreed, 100%, “That means I get to use my Pirate Pass.” Another huff from King, then the Sea King let out a yawn, lowering his head so that only his fin and above his nostrils was visible above water. Somehow it reminded Luffy of Zoro, but if he was an alligator or crocodile instead of, well, Zoro.

 ** _‘Make sure to find meat.’_** Since that was his plan from the very beginning, Luffy didn't bother confirming and instead headed to where he assumed they keep their food. He could find it, he was a master at finding food. Plus it was a pretty small ship. Maybe the kitchen...where’s the kitchen? Luffy hummed, squinting at a few doors and a hallway. The hallway seemed promising.

It was a bit weird to see no one else in the ship though, was that the entire crew on deck? It was a bit small, compared to other pirate crews. Then again, his was as well...if the fleet wasn’t counted. Ah. There’s someone sitting by a door, maybe he can ask where the food is at. It looked like they were injured though, one hand clutching their head and another hand clutching their bleeding shoulder. Hm...Chopper would probably get mad at him if he attacked an injured person...maybe he’ll try to ask where the food is at _nicely_. 

“Hey,” Luffy called out, making the other snap their head at them. They seemed to immediately regret that though, judging by how they hissed and squeezed their head further. Luffy gave them a moment before continuing, “where’s the food at?” Their response was to pull out a pistol and have Luffy at gunpoint, wearing a snarl. 

“Who are—” They bit back another hiss, and tried again through gritted teeth, “Who are you?!” Luffy blinked, but didn’t break eye contact with the other, keeping his gaze calm and cool. 

“I’m Luffy, a pirate—” 

“—A pirate? A kid like you?” They scoffed, shaky hands holding up the pistol. But it didn’t seem like it was from fear. 

“Yeah. So? Where’s the food? Me ‘n King are hungry.” Luffy rested his pipe on his shoulder, watching the other try to pull the trigger. Luffy knocked them out. But he didn’t _fight_ them, he just hit them with some haki. So Chopper wouldn’t be too mad...except maybe for the loud thud when they collapsed on their head, which was obviously in pain earlier. Oh well. More importantly, it looked like they were guarding this door, so maybe that’s where the food is! Or money, which he can use to buy food later...but he’d rather have food. Alright! In he goes—huh? 

To his surprise, it was just a dimly lit room with men collapsed along the floor. There was an oil lantern on a small table by Luffy, so he took it and curiously entered the room. It seemed like hardly any of them even realized he was there, too busy groaning and writhing in pain to notice him. A few looked to be unconscious, but regardless, their states more or less looked the same. Luffy crouched by one of them, poking the cheek of a heavy breathing man. No reaction. 

"Hmm…well, he's not dead…" He brought the lantern over the other's face to get a better look, only to see a long trail of blood from their mouth and a few missing teeth. They looked pretty pale as well, but it was hard to tell with the little lighting provided. Their condition looked familiar somehow...wonder why… "So confusing, I'm not a doctor!" Luffy huffed, guess it really didn't matter anyway. Shrugging, he decided to just leave. On his way out, a chorus of stomach growls sounded, none of which were from him. 

"F—Fruit...it hurts…" One pleaded, voice dry and hoarse. Luffy turned around, only to hear more pleas and begs. Fruit, they begged. So hungry, they cried. 

_'No matter how shitty the person, no one deserves to die from starvation. No one goes hungry my watch.'_ A familiar voice rang in his head. 

_'I don't care if it's an enemy or not, I have to treat them!'_ Another said. Luffy blinked, silently shutting the door behind him. 

"Alright, I wonder if they have any navigation stuff…" Luffy mumbled, beginning his search for the map room. It took awhile, a few dead ends and wrong rooms, but since the ship was so small, he eventually found it. Inside where a few of those weird tools he's seen in Nami's room, he had no idea how to use them, so he didn't bother with them. At best, he could read a basic map and log pose. 

But this was the East Blue so they'd have a normal compass, which shouldn't be too difficult to use. Probably. Scurrying through the desks and cabinets, Luffy eventually found a basic map of the East Blue. It was simple, it didn't show the _ladder_ or _long dudes_ , or the _elevator_ of the islands and sea. It just showed where islands where and what direction they were in. The estimated distance too but...the math was too confusing. Basically he just had to head that direction until they got there, right? 

"Let's see…we're…" Luffy dragged his finger across the map, “somewhere around here...looks like I was right, we’re pretty close to the next island. We were asleep for awhile so we should reach the island in around...4 hours? Aw man, hopefully it’s not too boring.” He sighed, jamming the map and a nearby compass into his pocket. Next, food. Setting out, Luffy sniffed around until his nose lead him into the ship’s pantry. 

“Ohhhh~~!!” He beamed, running over to the crates and digging through them. His excitement was quickly dampered down though. “What? It’s all just stale bread ‘n dried meats. Blegh, those crackers look dry!” A lick confirmed those suspicions. Face twisting in distaste, Luffy sighed and began to stack the crates on top of each other. Beggars can’t be choosers...at least it’ll only be a 4 hour trip. Taking 2 of the 8 crates of food, Luffy shoved a loaf of bread in his mouth and headed out. Right as he had exited onto the outer deck, Luffy spotted a small lifeboat dinghy tucked against the wall. A grin stretched across his face.

“Lucky~” He hummed, dumping the crates onto the dinghy. He wondered if King could carry the dinghy like Surume did, but then quickly realized there would be no point in the dinghy then. But before his head could overheat from thinking too much, bundles of long ropes saved the day. Perfect! Rather satisfied with his haul, Luffy dragged the dinghy behind him as he walked to the edge of the deck where King was waiting in the water. King let out a loud huff.

 ** _‘Took you long enough.’_**

"Shishi! Sorry sorry, can ya hand over our crate of fruits?" Luffy said, beginning to tie the ropes to each other. King let out another huff and leaned forward, letting the crate fall off of him and onto the deck. A few fruits spilled out, but Luffy ignored it in favour of tightening the knots further. 

**_'What exactly are you doing?'_ **

"Making it longer...one sec…" Adding the final rope, Luffy tested the durability with a little tug. He grinned. "Alright, done! King King! Bend down a bit! And open your mouth!" He pestered, jumping around and holding up the rope. King tilted his head but did as he was told. 

"Don't bite through it, ok?" Luffy said as he carefully placed the rope between razor sharp fangs, making sure it wouldn't slip off. Realization flickered through King’s eyes as Luffy pulled away, eyes moving from the dinghy to the rope in his mouth. 

**_‘Don’t tell me…’_** King backed up, sweat already forming whereas a large grin broke out on Luffy’s face. 

“Yup! It’ll be easier to carry more stuff now!” He trotted over to the dinghy to firmly tie both ends of the rope to it, giving it a tug for good measure. 

**‘I’m not a horse…’** King let out a long huff much like a sigh.

“Aw, what’s the big deal? You let me ride your head!” Luffy replied as he pushed the dinghy over the deck and into the water, hopping onto it once he deemed it stabilized enough. Another sigh-like huff. 

**_‘Pride.’_**

“Huh.” Luffy said, then, “You sound like Torao.”

 _ **‘If this is how your mate constantly experiences, then I feel incredibly sorry for him.’**_

“Shishishi! Torao always complained, it was funny.” Luffy pulled out his newly acquired map and compass and spread it out on a relatively dry area on the dinghy, examining both. 

_**‘The crate of fruit?’** _

“Don’t need it.” He waved a dismissive hand, returning his attention to the tools, “As I thought, we’re pretty close to the next island. I stole enough food to last us for the few hours of sailing, but I stole an extra crate in case anything happens.” 

_**‘I didn’t take you for the kind of guy who does planning and preparation.’** _

“I’m not.” Luffy felt his face cringe at the mere thought of plans, “But if it involves food? Definitely.” King made a chortle in reply. After a few moments of frowning at the tools and nearly frying his brain, Luffy pointed to the right. 

“Go that way, it’s where the island is. We can restock there, get some meat...oh and replenish the fruits. I’m good at dine and dashing, plus I can pickpocket. Kinda. I think. Probably.” He shrugged, putting the map away but keeping the compass in his grasp, “I guess I’ll figure that part out when I’m trying it.” Luffy already started digging through one of the crates for a pre-snack as King began swimming, continuing their journey ahead.

  


~x~ 

  


1511  
M: 4  
D: 5

 

A little boy trembled harshly, curled up under an old ragged cloak. A large hand ran through his hair, gently combing through messy knots. The boy weakly leaned into the touch, head falling limp against the leg it lied on. The larger man’s heart clenched painfully at the sight.. 

“Law, Law _please_ , there’s not even a week left, hang on.” The large man begged, looking down at the smaller form below him. The boy didn’t respond, they didn’t even crack an eye open. They just lied there, uneven breaths shaking their body. The man bit his lip, palm pressing against a much too warm forehead to wipe away sweat.

“Just a few more days Law. We’ve come so far, you can’t die yet...I’m begging you…”

  


.x. 

  


**_‘Are we not stopping at that island?’_** Luffy looked up to glance where King was looking at, only to return his attention to shoving as much things as he could into one singular crate. 

 

“Loguetown? Nah. We’re really close to the Reverse Mountain, and no point in stocking up if we don’t have the space for it.” Luffy said, shoving one last thing into the crate before shutting the lid and tying a rope around it. After looping the rope around all sides of the crate, Luffy wrapped the end of the rope around his wrist and picked up his pipe. “Oh, you can get rid of the rope in your mouth now.” 

_**‘Not that I’m complaining, but what about the dinghy?’**_

“Don’t need it. It won’t last up the Reverse Mountain. We got a problem though.” Luffy replied as he plopped himself back down on King’s head, crate and pipe resting by his side. 

_**‘And that is?’**_

“See that big mountain ahead? That’s the Reverse Mountain, a big mystery mountain where water goes up instead of down. The only time it goes down is into the Grand Line, but we’re not going there. We need to go into the North Blue, but the water goes up that path too.” King let out a huff.

 _ **‘So? What’s the plan?’**_ A large grin formed on Luffy’s face, stretching from ear to ear in a way that would send anyone who truly knew him groan and question their life choices. 

 

“We jump.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HSHSHS ok hopefully you made it through this chapter. Forgive any mistakes, I got lazy and just did a quick beta over myself. 
> 
> Anyway, hopefully good news: Almost the entire next chapter is all Cora-san and Law! It _might_ also be a bit longer...dunno, haven't completely finished it yet (yay procrastination). 
> 
> Also please check out my new [OP beans](https://twitter.com/rron_2k/status/1139543938182856706?s=19) (otedama's) I recently bought one for Zoro Luffy n Coby, and I'm in love with them. I also have [a shippy version of ZoLuCo with them](https://twitter.com/rron_2k/status/1139544376739291137?s=19) hehehehe


	8. A Weird Kid? A Friend or Foe?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corazon meets a weird kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY, THIS IS A BIG BOY CHAPTER SO IM INCREDIBLY THANKFUL FOR THE TWO PEOPLE WHO HELPED BETA THIS MONSTER!! THANK YOU [cxasandt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cxasandt) FOR FIXING MY TENSES, REPEATING WORDS, AND OFFERING SYNONYMS AND BULLYING ME FOR USING COMIC SANS FUC YOU (NOT REALLY) AND ALSO [JustAnIntrovert](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnIntrovert/pseuds/JustAnIntrovert) FOR FIXING MY WRITING AS WELL AND OFFERING WAYS TO CHANGE IT!!! 
> 
> OK now onto the chapter!

1511  
M: 4  
D: 5  
**(Same day)**

 

Maybe jumping off the mountain wasn’t the smartest of ideas, Luffy thought. Unfortunately, when Luffy thought about that, it was a bit too late. They didn’t jump from the _very_ top of course. Since King is kinda a giant eel, he was able to swim against the currents, but only for a while. The currents were too strong for the small Sea King to swim against for long, and when he reached his limit, he jumped. So now they were now falling from the sky, and Luffy just realized that he wasn’t exactly rubber and he...well, he may go splat. 

“Crap.” He hissed, gritting his teeth as King’s body collided with the water. The sudden stop caused a sharp tug on his shoulder that was holding onto King. He tried to let out a sound of pain, but that only led to the inhalation of sea water. His grip on King slipped, and he momentarily panicked until something tugged on his other wrist. With burning eyes, Luffy squinted through his blurry vision and noticed the rope still tied around his wrist, leading to the crate bobbing above the water. Despite his throbbing unmoving shoulder, Luffy kicked and flailed until he was above surface, gasping for some much needed air. 

“W—What the hell?!” 

“A kid?! What was that that just fell?!” A few voices near Luffy yelled, but he ignored them in favour of coughing out salty sea water. Ugh. That was like the one time Garp tried throwing him into the ocean to teach him how to swim, but _worse._ As Luffy regained his senses, he shook himself off and looked around for King, who still hadn’t resurfaced. 

“King! Oi, King! Are you alright?!” He called out, trying to sense for him. They practically took the entire fall! Those people who had spoken earlier kept saying something, and he wished they could shut up for a moment so he can focus better. Luffy only let himself relax when he sensed them resurfacing, and the water breaking apart for him shortly after with a few screams following. 

_**‘I hear you...no need to yell…’**_

“I’m so glad...I worried for a second there!” He sighed, attempting to kick his way over to King. During his crawl up, he finally noticed the large ship to the side of them. Along with all the pale crewmembers staring at them. Well, he didn’t _sense_ any danger or ill intent from them, so maybe they weren’t jerks?

“Oi.” All of them flinched and straightened up. Oh. Now Luffy understood what was happening. Luffy grinned up at them, giving his metal pipe a fancy little twirl and propping it up against his shoulder. He may be a child at the moment, but he can still play this game easily. 

 

“This is the North Blue, right?” He asked with a head tilt and a stretching smile. King seemed to have picked up on his little “game” and turned to the crew as well, letting out a low bubbling sound. The crew quickly nodded, and kept continuing to nod over and over, as if hoping it would help lessen whatever they were in for. 

“Great! See, I’m from the Grand Line,” They blanched more. Bingo.“and I just wanted to check if we ended up in the right place! Do you have a map of the North Blue you could spare me? Oh, and how far away is the next island? And how long will it take to get there?” Luffy asked. Nothing he said was a lie, so he could say it without stuttering or looking off. He didn’t say he _came_ from the Grand Line to the North Blue, just that he’s from the Grand Line. Which, isn’t wrong. He came from the East Blue to the Grand Line, back to the East Blue and _then_ to the North Blue. He was in the Grand Line at some point!

“The next island is around 30 minutes away! And we have a map!” One squeaked. Luffy turned to grin at him. 

“Really? That’s great news! Can I have it?” He knew they weren’t really afraid of _him_ per se, but rather, King. But he was riding King so it looked to them like he was the one in control. They weren’t wrong, but he didn’t want to control King, he was his friend now! Even if he was a bit of a grump. But that's ok, because so were Torao and Zoro. And occasionally Kid, too.

“Right away!” They scrambled away after King let out an impatient huff loud enough for them to hear. They returned shortly after with a map which they nervously handed over. After Luffy briefly checked it over and saw it was similar to the one he vaguely remembered seeing in the past...future…whatever, he gave them a more friendly, and less threatening, smile. 

“Thanks! I’m glad you guys weren’t jerks, the last ones were, and I had to beat them up! I’m guessing you guys are heading to the Grand Line, right? It’s a rough trip up, be careful not to crash! Word of advice, normal compasses don’t work there! You need a log pose, it points to the next island on your route! The time it takes to change varies, so good luck!” After waving them off, Luffy pulled out his compass and pointed to the direction of the nearest island the map was showing. 

“Alright, let’s go, King.” With a huff, King started swimming away from the ship and where Luffy pointed to. Once they were far enough, Luffy asked him if he was okay. 

_**‘I feel a bit dizzy and my body still stings a bit from the fall, but I’ll be fine.’** _

“Want to stop for a bit?” Luffy asked worriedly. That fall wasn’t something to make light of, and even he, someone who was rubber most of his life, knew that. King gave him another huff in reply. 

_**‘I can already see the island in the distance, it’s not that much work to swim there.’**_

“Hmmm...alright, if you say so. But we’re definitely resting once we get there.” Luffy said. He absentmindedly checked his left arm and tried to close his fingers. They didn’t move, nor did any of his arm, it was completely numb. Huh. Oh well. It’ll heal on its own, Luffy figured.

  


.x. 

  


“Laaaaand!” Luffy hopped off of King to lie down on the rocky ground. They had to lay low at first and circle the island a bit to find an area that didn’t have people. King needed to rest, and although Luffy wasn’t a big fan of plans, he at least had to figure out where he was supposed to be going. Attracting attention to themselves could lead to fights or just work in general, and Luffy’s child body was craving a nap. 

“Uhhhh...let’s see...we’re currently at...Seagull island. Okay, Minion island isn’t _too_ far, I think.” Luffy paused to let out a yawn. He nestled against King, whose head was resting on the sun-warmed ground. “Mmm...there’s a big problem in the fact I don’t know exactly when everything happens...hopefully it all works out in the end.” He sleepily rubbed at his eyes and let out another yawn. He looked up as he heard a seagull wail and saw a News Coo landing in front of him. 

Luffy fished out some of the money he stole earlier from the townspeople and tossed it to the bird. It picked up the coins and pushed it into their little pouch, dropping the newspaper and flying off shortly after. Luffy shook himself awake and grabbed it, unrolling it and scanning the contents. He didn’t read the newspaper in the past-future...or future-past often, but any information could end up being useful.

“Huh? Crocodile? What’s he doing in the North Blue?” Luffy rubbed his eyes to read better, surprised to see the familiar name in North Blue papers. But upon further reading, it was just advertising about some heroic act of taking down pirates again in the Grand Line. How weird, why’s the newspaper bragging about something happening in the Grand Line when it’s the North Blue? In the East Blue, it was close to impossible to hear anything truthful about the Grand Line, even from official papers. Was the East Blue really all that different? How weird. 

“Oh. He’s a warlord still? I didn’t know he was a warlord this early on…” Luffy’s moveable hand traveled to the center of his torso, palm lying flat against him. He still remembered how it felt when Crocodile’s hook pierced through his body. He didn’t really hold it against him, though. Although he did a lot of bad things to Vivi’s country, he had helped with his attempt in rescuing Ace. Vivi...Ace…

“I wonder...what everyone’s doing…now…” Luffy yawned and glanced at the date printed on the paper, heavy and lidded eyes slowly blinking. “Nap.” He decided, clonking out against King.

  


~x~ 

  


1511  
M:4  
D:11

 

A tall, blonde haired male looked around, checking for any danger before carefully placing down the trembling boy in his arms. The boy curled up in the cloak he was wearing, desperate for what meager warmth the thin fabric could offer. The older male was heartbroken seeing him like this, so weak and exhausted. But there was no time to stay here and comfort him, they were on a time limit, and every second counted. 

“Listen, Law. I’m going to steal the Op Op fruit, and then I’ll come back so you can eat the fruit, alright?” He said with a soft voice, placing his large hands on the much smaller boy’s shoulders. They weakly looked up at him, head barely lifted in their evergrowing weakness. 

“Cora-san...what about…you..?” They panted, their much too thin frame trembling, “Will you...be ok..?” They looked so desperate when they asked him this, eyes full of worry and fear. Corazon wanted to cry at the sight. 

“Idiot! Now's not the time to be worrying about me! Of course I’ll be fine, so don’t worry and just stay alive! I’ll be back…” Corazon grinned, raising a peace sign, “with the Op Op fruit!” Law managed a weak smile, his worried eyes now filled with hope. Corazon ran his fingers through Law’s hair one last time, 

“When all of this is over, let’s travel the world together, Law.” With that promise said and done, Corazon ran out of the little empty house he dropped Law at, heading to the pirates' hideout. Breaking in was easy enough, especially considering his ability. Nothing he did made a single sound, and no one noticed until it was too late

“The treasure house is on fire!!” One pirate screamed, gaining the attention of the crew inside. 

“Put out the fire then you dumbass!!” The captain yelled. Corazon drew out his pistol, shooting out the lamps and bolting over to the captain. Luckily, the dumbass was already holding the fruit. 

“What?! Is there someone in here?! Someone! Someone turn on the lights—” Corazon kicked him, cutting him off and snatching the fruit from him. The pirate fell with complete silence, and Corazon began his escape before anyone noticed him.

“Is there someone here?!” One yelled. Corazon wasted no time and pulled out a grenade, biting off the pin and dropping it inside before escaping through the window. It was times like these that the coat Doflamingo gave him was useful, since it protected him from sharp shards of glass and the like. A few lackeys noticed him on his way out, but it was too late. He was fast, far too fast for them to catch up. He grew up running from other people after all. It was all he did. As Corazon held the heart shaped fruit in his hands, he couldn’t hold back the tears that filled his eyes. He did it! He got the op op fruit! He could finally save Law...and they could travel the world togeth—his blood froze when he felt the telltale sign of him slipping. He’s cursed his clumsiness countless times before, but never as harshly as he did then. But Corazon knew he couldn’t catch himself, only grit his teeth and prepare for the fall. 

However, it didn’t happen. Instead, something was tugging on his cloak, preventing him from sliding down the slippery snow-covered slope. Did it get caught on something? 

“Whew...that was close, I managed to catch you in time!” Who—?! “But you’re seriously heavy, can you stand? Uh-oh. Oh crap. My grips slipping—oi are you listening? Can you stand? My grips seriously slipping—ah this is bad—” Corazon turned around to see a small—smaller than Law even—boy holding his cloak with a single hand and obvious struggle. Then, out of nowhere, the boy suddenly tackled him and pushed him down. 

“Get down!” They hissed, bullets whizzing by them seconds after. Corazon turned to see the men that were chasing him now aiming guns at them. Corazon cursed, knowing he couldn’t dodge all the bullets from his position on the ground. 

“What a pain…” The unknown boy mumbled, “I’m not rubber so I should probably avoid being shot...“ It was only when the boy leaped off of him and charged at the men did Corazon notice the boy was armed...kinda. The boy had some sort of metal pipe in his grasp, and he swung it with ease while engaging in combat with the pirates. Who was this kid? An enemy? Someone from the Navy? No...he wasn’t wearing any of the government symbols. Then who? 

“Watch out for the pirates behind you!” The kid warned. Corazon sat up and turned around, only to see exactly what the kid warned him of, more enemies. He quickly stood up before they noticed him, deciding in a split second whether to run or fight. He decided on the latter. There were three pirates, but Corazon didn’t have his position in both the Marines and The Family just for show. After the ‘cleanup’ was done, Corazon turned around just in time to see the mysterious boy take down the second of the three pirates he was also up against. 

“Die you damn brat!!” The last one yelled, charging at the boy’s left side. While Corazon was debating whether or not to save this odd kid, the boy turned to the pirate, sending some sort of shockwave and freezing the man in his tracks. The boy frowned and swung his pipe at the pirate’s head, knocking him out. He clicked his tongue.

“Tsk. Still too weak to knock him out, huh?” They grumbled, kicking some snow with a childish pout. Corazon could only stand there frozen in shock. Because surely, _surely_ that wasn’t—

“You’re Not-Mingo right? You have a black cloak similar to Mingo’s, Torao said you wore one like that.” The boy said, looking up at the sky with a frown, “I don’t think we have much time, Mingo's gonna put up that string cage soon. Once it’s up, we won’t be able to escape from here.” Corazon frowned and backed up. Mingo? Did this kid mean Doflamingo? Who was this kid? How did he know his brother? Was he an enemy? And what was that about a string cage?

“Come on, we need to hurry and give Torao the fruit! You have it, don’t you? We need to go!” The boy continued, urging him to rush. Corazon bit his lip, questioning whether or not to speak in front of this kid. If he was somehow connected to The Family then it would be bad. But he needed answers, and he wasn’t going to get it by being silent. Reluctantly, he removed Calm from himself and spoke. 

“Who are you?” He asked, wary and on guard. But the boy showed no signs of being shocked by his ability to speak.

“Me? I’m Monkey D. Luffy. Now c’mon, we really gotta go or it’ll be too late. I got a ride ready so we can escape.” The boy, Luffy, answered. The name slowly processed, and Corazon opened and closed his mouth until he finally managed out a slow, 

“Monkey…D….” He gulped, “The same last name as Garp?” Luffy lit up at the name.

 

“Oh. You know my Gramps? I guess that makes sense, since the old Goat Guy said you’re his son, and Gramps is always bothering him.” Luffy said, further shocking Corazon. Goat...Goat Guy? Did he mean Sengoku-san? 

“You...who’re you..?” Corazon repeated, making the other frown.

“I already told you, Monkey D. Luffy. Can we go now? We’re really low on time! I guess I can try to answer any questions on our way to Torao? Where is he? My Observation Haki has gotten better, but I can’t sense him anywhere.” Corazon didn’t like it, but the child was right. Standing here out in the open and so close to the enemies hideout while people are still looking for them wasn’t the brightest of ideas. After a quick debate, Corazon took off to where he left Law, the child following behind him. 

“Who’s this “Torao”? And you know Haki?” He asked, giving a glance to the child who somewhat managed to keep up with him. He seemed to be clutching his left shoulder...now that he thought about it, the child hadn’t moved his left arm at all, was it injured? 

“Yeah. Though most of my Haki is still bad, Observation Haki seems to be returning the quickest after the whole travel thing.” Travel thing? “And Torao is…” The boy paused, face contorting as if he were trying to figure out how to say a particularly difficult or foreign word. “...Law.” They finally got out. Law?! Corazon skidded to a stop, whipping his head around and getting into an offensive stance. 

“How do you know Law?!” He growled. While he didn’t exactly want to fight a child, he wouldn’t hesitate if they were an enemy and intended to harm Law. The boy seemed genuinely shocked by this sudden outburst and also skidded to a stop, cranning their head up to look at him. 

“How do I know him? Torao’s my nakama, I like him!” Another pause, “Ah. But he used to always get mad whenever I said that. Forget that part.” They said...wait, what? Like? What?? What was this kid going on about???

“Anyway, can we go now? I’m really worried about Torao.” Luffy continued, slinging his pipe over their uninjured shoulder. Corazon really didn’t trust this child, should he try to lose him? No, if this Luffy child really had haki, he could just search him down if he so desired to. There was no choice. 

“Yeah.” Corazon nodded. He decided to just put faith in this “D”. Law was a "D" as well, and it wasn't often that D's ended up as enemies. With that as his only hope, Corazon took off again. 

“D’s never make sense…” He mumbled to himself, narrowly avoiding tripping on a snow covered rock. Then, more quieter, “I wonder...is this D one who causes a storm..?” Luffy made a little hum, making Corazon glance behind him. Had he been heard? 

“Are you talking about that storm saying? I’ve heard it often, but there was one Torao told me about that I hadn’t heard of before. What was it...bad children will be eaten by a D?” Corazon’s eyes widened. That saying was—! “Now that I think about it, Torao really wanted to do it last time...maybe I’ll let Torao be that D this time around.” A mischievous little glint was in their eyes, promising nothing but chaos and destruction. An oddly fitting snicker soon followed, and Corazon felt like he had every right to be unsettled by it all. 

_‘Who exactly_ is _this child?! How did they know Law’s secret name?!’_ Corazon swallowed thickly, turning to look ahead with a grimly serious scowl, _‘And that saying...it’s the one told back from_ that place! _What exactly is fate trying to pull—’_

“Get down!” Luffy hissed, roughly grabbing his wrist and pulling him to hide behind a boulder. An enemy? Corazon carefully peeked over the boulder, noticing some marines in the distance. 

“They’re just marines.” Corazon whispered, raising a brow when the boy shook his head.

“The Steak Guy is with them.” He answered. 

“The...Steak Guy?” Corazon blinked at Luffy’s weird flailing of his hand as if he were trying to find his words. 

“Uhhhh...the guy who always has food stuck to his face. Forgot his name. The other Corazon, I think.” 

“Vergo is?!” Corazon whisper-yelled, chewing on his lip. He really needed a cigarette. And maybe some booze. Even if Law would nag him for it later. 

“Yeah, I think that’s what his name is. He’s secretly part of the marines or something, I don’t know why...Huh. Maybe I shoulda mentioned that to Gramps. I kinda forgot about it till now though.” Luffy further explained before turning to him, “If the marines find out about you, then he probably will. If that happens, he’ll contact Mingo and Mingo might put up his stupid cage. I can warn you of any enemies I sense nearby, so let’s go.” Corazon took a deep breath and nodded. It was time to test fate. 

“Alright.”

  


.x.

  


“There.” Corazon pointed to a small figure leaning against some rubble. It wasn’t exactly the spot he left Law at though, so he guessed that Law moved on his own, for whatever reason. Luckily, it wasn’t somewhere they had to search for. 

“Cora-san…” Law panted out when Corazon got closer to him. “That’s good...you’re ok...I heard gunshots and…” Law stopped, face twisting into a strained glower, “Who are you?” He snapped, glaring at the space beside Corazon. Corazon blinked and looked to his side where Luffy was standing at. He seemed to be struggling between feeling relieved, excited and worried. It was quite the sight. Meanwhile, Corazon set up Silent as Luffy eventually settled for excitement out of his many choices of emotions.

“Torao! You’re still alive! I’m so glad! Look, Not-Mingo is alive too!” Luffy exclaimed, wildly gesturing to Corazon. 

“I asked who you w—” 

“Talk later! We hafta go!” Luffy cut him off, shoving a fruit down Law’s throat. Wait—fruit?! Corazon checked his hands and coat, it was gone! The fruit was gone! When the hell did Luffy steal the fruit from him?! 

“Sto—...oss!” Law gagged around a mouthful of Devil Fruit, flailing his arms around and trying to shove Luffy away. 

“I know it tastes bad, but we gotta hurry! Now come on, it’ll save you!” 

“...usting..!” Law managed to get out just before Luffy forced his jaw closed. Corazon watched in worry, should he try to throw Luffy off? Law _did_ need to eat the fruit but...isn’t this way of feeding him kinda bad? Then again...he felt as if he would do the same thing if there really was such a dire need to rush.

“Believe me when I say I know! Now swallow!” Law put up one more futile struggle before swallowing the fruit down whole, taking in a loud gasp of air once Luffy finally freed his jaw.

“You! What the hell is your—” Law froze, frame beginning to shake as he stared at himself with wide eyes. Corazon worried something might’ve gone wrong.

“Law?” He stepped forward. Law shot his head up.

“I...I wasn’t ready to become a Devil Fruit eater!” He spluttered, checking his body as if he half expected to grow some sort of weird limb or transform into something. Corazon couldn’t help but laugh, falling back in relief. They did it, Law ate the fruit. Now he won’t die…

 

“Alright! You ate it!” Luffy suddenly scooped up Law, throwing him over his shoulder as if he were a mere sack of potatoes. As expected, Law put up a fight.

“Wh—hey! Put me down you bastard! I’ll kill you! Put me down! Who even _are_ you?!” He screamed, thrashing and punching Luffy’s back. Wait, Law doesn’t recognize him? Then, did Luffy lie about being friends with him? Or does Law just not remember him? This kid might still be an enemy..!

“Stop making so much noise or they might find us…” Luffy huffed, looking slightly annoyed, then he added, “Jeez, I thought you’d know that since you’re the smart one, not me.” That only spurred Law to put up more of a fight. 

“What the hell are you going on about?! Just put me down! I can…” Law started deflating, taking heavy breaths and slowing his struggle to catch his breath, “I can walk...on my own..!” Corazon doubted that. But he didn’t particularly want Luffy holding Law either, it’d be harder to protect him if someone he doesn’t really know is carrying him. Could he somehow get him to hand him over without raising suspicion? 

“Hey, Luffy? Can I carry him?” He carefully asked, watching Luffy’s face for any change in expression. But surprisingly, the boy just turned around and went, 

“Yeah sure.” And handed Law over by the collar of his shirt without any hesitation whatsoever. Corazon slowly grabbed Law and brought him to his chest, holding him carefully. 

“Oh...thanks.” He numbly nodded. Well. That was easier than he thought. 

“Alright, are you guys ready to go _now?_ I bet King is already impatient as it is.” Luffy said, making Corazon raise a brow. 

“King?” He asked. Luffy nodded.

 

“Our ride.” 

....

“Our ride is _this?!_ ” Corazon screamed, stepping back and protectively pressing Law to his chest. He gaped at the Sea King that was lazily staring down at them. It kept its eyes on them and made a huffing noise, making Corazon jump in surprise. Sure, it wasn’t nearly as big as Grand Line Sea Kings, but it’s still dangerous, especially when he’s unarmed! 

“Yeah! This is them!” Luffy said...to who? Who was he talking to? “Not-Mingo is pretty big, but you can carry them without a problem, right?” Luffy continued, tilting his head as he looked up at the Sea King. Was he...was he talking to the Sea King??? Oh God. Oh God it just _smiled._ It smiled and nodded back. Those teeth were no joke. 

“Great!” Luffy grinned and turned to Corazon, all teeth and sunshine. He didn’t feel comforted by that smile in the _least_. In fact, every fiber in his body was screaming danger. _Run_ , it said, _Run and you may escape from a lifetime of headaches._

“King said he can handle it, now get on!” Luffy beamed as he patted the top of the Sea King’s head, which had already bent down to let them on. The Sea King’s eyes were still on them, and the entire weight of the current situation fell onto Corazon. He couldn’t run, they were already at the shore, and wasting time to run to his own dinghy could cost them both of their lives. And that was only if Luffy let them escape without a problem. Taking a final look at the Sea King, Corazon shut his eyes with a deep breath. 

_‘Mother-eh, have I been the bad child who gets eaten by a D.? Or did I get caught in the storm of a D.?’_ Corazon let out a loud sigh, slumping his shoulders in defeat, _‘Both are just as bad in the end anyways.’_

“Agh! Whatever! It’s this or my brother’s strings!” He groaned, stepping onto the Sea King. Even though he really wanted to stomp his way up, he didn’t exactly want to piss the animal off by doing so. 

“Wait, Cora-san! You’re not really doing this, are you?!” Law tugged on his shirt from where he was being held, a look of desperation on his face. Corazon understood exactly how Law felt right now. 

“There’s...unfortunately not much of a choice right now, Law.” He replied, sitting himself down on the Sea King’s head and grabbing its fin. Since Corazon himself was so big, he could somewhat wrap his legs around the Sea King. It was...kinda like riding a horse without a saddle...a slimy horse though. Ew. 

“Even so—” 

“Alright, hold on tight and be careful not to fall off and drown! King, full speed ahead!” Luffy cheered, cutting Law’s protest off. 

“Wait, how fast is full—” Law was cut short again by his scream of terror when the Sea King lunged forward, swimming far faster than what was expected. Corazon just clenched his teeth and held onto the fin for dear life...at least it wasn’t as slimy as the body was. 

“I SWEAR I’M GOING TO KILL YOU ONE DAY!!!” Law screamed, probably directed at Luffy. Or Corazon himself. Or both. Who could say? But through Law’s garbled screams and Corazon’s internal life crisis, Luffy just laughed. Bright, cheerful, _shishishi’s_ carried away by the strong wind blowing by. Corazon could’ve sworn the Sea King was laughing, too. 

Out of everything that Luffy told him that might’ve been a lie, Corazon knew that he didn’t lie about being a D. He felt a headache coming on, and he really needed a cigarette alongside some booze right now. ~~Even now, he still gets a headache and an urge to drink just thinking about it.~~

  


.x. 

  


“I...I’m gonna—urp..! Kill...you..!!” Law retched, leaning over the Sea King and covering his mouth. Corazon gently rubbed small circles on his back, trying to do what little he could to help. Luffy just continued to laugh that odd _shishishi!_ of his, not at all minding the threat. Maybe he thought Law really wouldn’t do it. Which...Corazon would _like_ to agree on, but...he wouldn’t put it past Law if Luffy gave him a good enough reason to do so. 

“Who even are you? You never answered my question.” Law asked as he sat back up, looking a bit less green and a bit more...well, Law’s normal shade of skin was always worrying. Luffy stopped laughing and blinked. 

“Oh that’s right, you don’t remember me.” 

“No, I don’t _know_ you.” Law harshly corrected him, but Luffy didn’t seem all that bothered by Law’s attitude, as if he were already long since used to it. 

“I’m Luffy, your nakama!” Luffy extended a hand out to Law. 

“Friend?” Law repeated, frowning and slapping the hand away, “I don’t know you, and I don’t have any friends.” Corazon could hear the unsaid _’they all died on that day’_. Luffy looked at his hand that was smacked away with an expression that Corazon couldn’t quite describe. Indifference? Disappointment? Knowing? Although Corazon was trained to read the expressions of people for his line of work, he couldn’t place one singular description for Luffy’s face. 

“Are you part of the Family or something?” Law asked a bit more cautiously. Luffy’s face twisted and he stuck out his tongue at Law. 

“No way, I wouldn’t want to be part of that dumb bird’s “Family”.” Dumb...bird? How many names did this kid have for his brother? 

“Then why did you save us?” Law continued, and Luffy started to look a bit annoyed at this point. 

“Why do you guys make me repeat myself so much? You’re my nakama, so of course I’d save you.” Luffy huffed out, irritating Law. 

“And I said I don’t know who you are! We aren’t nakama!” He lashed out at Luffy. But instead of Luffy snapping back, or even looking hurt, a look of warm nostalgia filled his face. 

“Ah, this brings back memories…” He said with a soft smile. It did nothing to soothe Law.

“What the hell are you going on about?!” 

“This is just like Dressrosa...I feel like Brook remembering an old story! Shishishi!” 

“Again, what the hell are you going on about?!” 

“I want tea now. And meat. Tea and meat is a great combo, you know?” 

“ANSWER MY—” Law started having a coughing fit and he fell to his knees, hands flying to his throat as tears welled up in the corner of his eyes. Corazon’s eyes widened at the sight and he quickly leaned over to Law. 

“Law!” He placed an unsure hand on Law’s back, watching as the coughs slowly died down and Law’s breath were just heavy heaves. 

“I’m fine…” Law panted, “I just raised my voice too much.” He batted Corazon’s hand away, breath slowly returning to normal. Corazon bit his lip. He knew just eating the fruit wouldn’t cure Law, Law had to use the fruit. But neither of them knew how the fruit worked. How long did they have? 

“Alright, as much as I hate boring explanations, I don’t want Torao to die.” Luffy spoke, voice suddenly serious. Corazon and Law turned to him. He was sitting criss-crossed, back straight, and eyes hard. Although Luffy was just a child, Corazon felt like he in the presence of one of his superiors. The realization of that made Corazon gulp. 

“A bit late for that, I’m already dying.” Law replied with a dry scoff. Luffy shook his head. 

 

“You are, but since you ate your fruit already, you can reverse it.” Corazon frowned at this. The way Luffy spoke...it was almost as if…

“Do you know how the Op Op fruit works?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Luffy nodded. But that didn’t make any sense! The World Government barely knew anything about the fruit aside from its special ability of immortality! Wait, could that be Luffy’s goal? Like Doflamingo, did he want immortality? “Well, I kinda know how it more or less works. But it should be enough for Torao to cure himself at least, since Torao is smart.” 

“What do you know?” Corazon asked. Even though he was more wary about Luffy now than he was before, if he has knowledge that can possibly save Law, he’ll take it. Even if he’s a possible enemy to them. 

“How to activate the fruit, and how to get rid of his Amber Lead.” 

 

“You even know about that?!” Law hissed, but despite his vicious tone, he leaned away from Luffy and into Corazon, clutching his feathered coat with a trembling hand. Corazon knew he was afraid of the venom-coated remarks that normally followed. But instead of anything close to cruel, Luffy’s serious demeanor fell, replaced with what seemed to be confusion. 

“Huh? Yeah.” Luffy replied with a simple nod. 

“What do you mean ‘yeah’?!” Law yelled in exasperation, or perhaps disbelief. 

 

“Well, I mean, what do you want me to say?” Both Law and Corazon fell silent, Corazon because he felt like he’d intrude on something and Law because he’d probably never received a reply quite like Luffy’s. When Law finally spoke, it was barely above a whisper, 

“...Aren’t you afraid, or something?” 

“Afraid? Afraid of what? ‘S not contagious or anything. But even if it was, I wouldn’t really care. Torao would just have to cure me after he’s all better, then!” With the bright, sunny smile that Luffy showed Law, it was as if a giant weight had lifted off of Law’s tense frame. His shoulders relaxed, and he looked almost as relieved as when Corazon promised he’d come back alive. That is, until he seemed to process the other half of what Luffy said. 

“Hah? Why would I treat you? I have no reason to even if it _was_ contagious.” Law gave a dramatic scoff and looked away, arms crossed. Corazon couldn’t help but smile to himself at the sight, there was no doubt Law was “secretly” overjoyed from the words Luffy said. Luffy puffed out his cheeks childishly. 

“So mean…” Despite the hurt tone, Luffy’s grin was impossibly wide. It looked as if he wanted to mess with Law a little, probably poke him or tease him or something equally as annoying to Law, but that serious look from moments before returned in full swing.

“Man I hate serious stuff like this…” Luffy sighed and reached for something on top of his head, only for his hand to jerk to a halt when whatever he was reaching for wasn’t there. Luffy let out another sigh, this time sounding disappointed and dejected, “Okay, back to the explanation.” Luffy extended his palm out, faced down and fingers partially clenched. 

“Torao, your Room is an operation room.” He said, looking Law straight into his eyes. Law blinked, his reply slow and unsure, 

“My...room?” Law repeated as he stared at the hand in perplexion.

“Your Room. It’s how you use your fruit. It’s like…” Luffy paused again, he seemed to do that a lot whenever he was thinking, almost as if he were trying to remember someone else's words, “a dome, that appears when you will it to. It’s your own operation room, and you control everything inside of it.” 

“My own...operation room…” Law turned down to his own hand, opening and closing it before trying to mimic the gesture Luffy was making. Corazon watched as Law closed his eyes and took a deep breath, soon muttering out a quiet, “Room”. Something blue flickered in Law’s palm, but the moment he jumped up in surprise and lost focus, it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. 

“I...I did it..?” Law looked at his hand, then to Corazon, “I did it, right..?” 

“I...I think so?” Corazon nodded, he himself being a bit stupefied. It took him _days_ before he was able to figure out how his own Devil Fruit even activated, and Law was able to do it in a day with one simple explanation?! Was it just because Luffy gave him a description that clicked with him? So well that Law was able to understand in the first try? Corazon went through dozens if not hundreds of his own before he found one that let him work with his Devil Fruit best. Did this Luffy kid just know exactly what would work best for Law? Or was it just luck? 

“You did it! That was it! That was Room!!” Luffy beamed as he took hold of Law’s shoulder with his one hand. Law himself was grinning with a prideful smile he rarely showed, obviously proud in himself.

“Yeah, I did it!” Law practically beamed, only to freeze mid-nod and catch himself with a small gasp. He pushed Luffy away as he cleared his throat, face now a forced frown. Corazon wanted to sigh, couldn’t Law let himself be the child he was for once? He was allowed to be happy dammit! “So? How will this help cure me?” Law asked once he had regained his composure. 

 

“Ah...well you still need two other skills...Scan and...something. The name’s not important. Anyway, inside your Room, you can use your skills.” Luffy began explaining the fruit further, and almost all of it was lost on Corazon. Many of the medical-sounding stuff Luffy said was corrected by Law, sounding entirely different than what Luffy described. But Luffy just nodded along with, “yeah that”, each time, and sometimes his explanation was just weird hand gestures and mere “so like”’s, “that one thingy”’s, or “it was too confusing and I fell asleep at this part”. That last one was particularly odd. 

“I more or less understand your...attempted explanation. Though I’m questioning the cutting out my liver part…” 

“You can cut out my liver as a test if you want? I don’t have the Lead disease, so there prolly won’t be anything to remove from it, but I don’t really mind.” Luffy nonchalantly offered. 

“You’d...seriously let me cut out your _liver_ like that?” Law gaped in disbelief. Luffy gave a one-armed shrug. 

“Sure, I’m used to it.” He replied. 

“You’re _used_ to having your liver cut out?” Corazon felt like Luffy’s response would be even more absurd. 

“Well, no, it was mainly my limbs or heart, not my liver.” Ah yep, Corazon was right on the mark.

“Right…” was Corazon’s only reply. Rule number one of dealing with a D, don’t question whatever insanity they spout, you’ll only get a headache in the end. Okay, moving on. They got the information that could save Law’s life, and evidence in Law’s success that it wasn’t just nonsense. Now to see what lies Luffy might have told. Starting off with…

“Luffy, you said Garp was your...grandfather, right? What is he like?” Corazon hadn’t noticed Law tense up from where he was sitting on his lap until it was too late. 

“Gramps? Well he’s kinda—” 

**“You’re the grandson of a marine?”** Law growled, voice low and laced with venom. Corazon couldn’t believe Law knew who Garp was, he was only well known further up in the Grand Line! When did he find out about him?! Did he ever accidentally mention Garp or something? Corazon hurriedly tried to go over every possible call he had with Sengoku that he might’ve mentioned Garp in, only to remember the call about the Op Op Fruit. Garp was briefly in it. But how did he know that Garp was a marine? During the crisis Corazon was fighting inside, Luffy’s charcoal eyes turned to meet Law’s.

“Yeah, why?” The nonchalant attitude was gone, replaced with an attententive sharpness. The way Luffy asked his question was odd, it was as if he already knew or expected the answer.

 **“I _hate_ Marines and the World Government.”** Law squeezed onto Corazon’s shirt, and Corazon wanted to somehow comfort him, but felt as if he didn’t have the right to do so. Being a Marine himself...or, well, _once_ being one.  
Luffy hummed lowly, a low and drawled out sound, and flopped onto his back. He was silent for a few moments, until a quiet, if not dry, “The World Government killed all my nakama too, you know.” Was said. Law’s hostile glower faltered, body giving a slight jerk. 

“They beat them all up until they were exhausted ‘n couldn’t stand anymore, much less fight. ‘N you know? It wasn’t the first time they did that, ‘cept they luckily didn’t die that time...or, at least not all of them.” Luffy sat back up, and despite the smile on his face, it seemed terribly empty to Corazon. Luffy was clutching his leg, nails digging into skin to the point of drawing blood, yet he showed no reaction to the possible pain.

Luffy jerked, as if snapping out of some sort of trance. And Corazon knew exactly what just happened, it would be impossible not to. He’d seen it all the time in his fellow soldiers, especially those who had previously fought in wars or harsh battles. 

 

He hated seeing a child have it, though. 

 

“So I’m not a Marine, nor do I have any intention on becoming one. But I don’t really hate Marines or the World Government as a whole, I have some friends there. I doubt they willingly played a part in their plan of killing everyone. Smokey woulda probably seen the plan as cowardly and rejected it and Coby wanted to capture—not kill—me in a more fair way.” The heavy pressure in the air was gone, and Luffy had already returned to how he previously was. 

“Oh,” Luffy then turned to Corazon, “Gramps is pretty crazy. He calls punching me with “Fists of Love” and throwing me into bottomless pits infested by monsters “training”. He’s almost killed me more times than I can count. Well...I don’t mind his training as much as I used to, but I wish he wouldn’t throw me around so much...does that answer your question?” Corazon was a bit taken aback by the sudden change of subject, but shook it off to take in what Luffy said. Comparing it to rumours from headquarters and his own personal experience...nothing he said sounded wrong. In fact, everything he said sounded exactly like him. 

“Yeah, perfectly.” Corazon sighed out. So this kid really _was_ the grandchild of Garp…Luffy then pulled out a compass and map, placing both his foot and the compass to prevent the map from flying away. Luffy’s focused face as he read the map looked more constipated if anything, or like his head was about to overheat and explode. Corazon was slightly worried about the latter happening. But he seemed to remember something, and his concentrated face was gone. 

“Oh yeah, I don’t really mind dropping you off at the next island or so, if you want.” Luffy mentioned, looking up to Corazon. 

“Wait, really?” Corazon couldn’t believe it, he’d really let them go so easily?

“Mhm. I don’t mind but...you’d constantly be on the run, more so than before. Even though Torao has his fruit and can cure himself, using the fruit really drains the user’s energy, and if he pushes himself too far, it’ll drain from his life force...or something like that. So it’ll take awhile for Torao to completely cure himself, but taking too much time in between treatments will just make the lead buildup again. Law will constantly be out of commission after he treats himself...can you handle that responsibility, while on the run from Mingo and the World Government alike?” 

Corazon wanted to say _‘Of course I can!’_. He really did. But running away from local policemen and running away from both the World Government and Doflamingo was another. He didn’t know how long it’d take for Law to cure himself, and simply acting like normal people were impossible, Law’s marks were too visible and anyone could tell what he had at a glance. He knew all of this, he was simply trying to ignore it. 

“So? What do you want from us?” Corazon near growled. This situation was dangerous, it wasn’t hard to figure that out. They were in the middle of the ocean, both being devil fruit eaters and one dying. Sure, he had a gun, but they were on a _Sea King_ , one that could easily eat them if it felt like doing so. The odds were entirely stacked against them. 

“Nothing, I’m not trying to threaten you two. I told you, I saved you both cause Torao is my nakama—” Law opened his mouth, but Luffy just continued “—even if Torao doesn’t think so. And that’s why I don’t want either of you dead. So, you can either get dropped off at an island and go on your way from there, or you can come with me to the East Blue.” 

“The East Blue?” Corazon parroted, hoping Luffy would explain further. Luckily, he did. 

“Uhn. The East Blue knows close to nothing outside of its own sea, it’s really weak too...though I’m sure you knew that already. I doubt they know about White Lead, so you don’t have to worry about being chased out or having the Government called on you for that. I bet they wouldn’t even know you’re wanted men, unless the Government found out you’re in the East Blue, cause we hardly ever receive wanted posters from the other seas.” Everything Luffy just presented sounded ideal, perfect, even. But,

“What’s the catch?” There’s no such thing as a free meal. **_Thwap thwap thwap._**

“Catch? Uhhh…” Luffy brought a finger to his forehead, face scrunching in that weird constipated thinking look again. **_Thwap thwap thwap thwap thwap thwap._** “Don’t die, either of you. That’s it, I guess.” 

“That’s...it?” **_Thwapthwapthwapthwapthwapthwap!_**

“Mmm...maybe let me try on Torao’s hat? I’ve never worn that one before and I kinda want to.” **_THWAPTHWAPTHWAPTHWAPTHWAPTHWAPTHWAPTHWAP!!!_** “Also, I think you’re gonna kill Torao.” Luffy said, pointing to Corazon’s chest. Corazon blinked and looked down, seeing Law furiously punching his chest, face being squished up against his shirt and being held in place by his hand. Oh. 

“Oh shit! Sorry Law, you alright?!” Corazon hurriedly withdrew his hand away from Law’s head to let him pull back with a loud gasp of air. Law started choking, giving him a glare from the corner of his eye through his coughing fit,

“Are you _trying_ to kill me before my Amber Lead?!” Law coughed out, collapsing against Corazon’s back shortly after catching his breath again. Shit. When did he accidentally start suffocating Law? Was it when he started to feel threatened by the situation? 

“Sorry Law, I really didn’t realize I was doing that, are you ok?” Corazon apologized again, earning nothing more than a huff from Law. Law then turned a pointed glare to Luffy, ignoring Corazon much to the pain of his heart. He really didn’t mean to suffocate him…

“You. Ignoring how suspicious you are, your arm, it’s dislocated, isn’t it?” Law nodded over to Luffy’s right shoulder, making the smaller turn to it with a small “ah”. 

“Is that what's wrong with it? I haven’t been able to move it since it happened.” He replied as he shook his entire back as if showing how useless his arm was. Law sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, probably holding back on a chide about how stupid he is to not treat it as soon as possible. Now that Corazon thought about it, Luffy’s arm was already like that when they met. 

“Yes, it’s obviously dislocated. How long has it been dislocated?” Law asked instead, though from the tightness of his voice it was obvious how annoyed he was at the moment. Luffy looked up, humming and clinking his head side to side. 

“What’s the date?” He asked, turning to Corazon. The…date? Why did that matter? 

“The 11th, why?” 

“Hnnnn...this happened when I first arrived, which was on the 5th, if I remember correctly...so about 6 days.” Silence. 

“...Are you crazy? Why the hell didn’t you get it treated before that?!” Law yelled at Luffy, hands dug under his hat and into his hair. Law might’ve still been a child, but Corazon had no doubt the doctor in him desperately wanted to berate and get after Luffy, all while rambling on about any possible dangers or side effects of his actions. 

“I forgot.” Was Luffy’s monotone reply, which only served to further aggravate Law. Law took a deep breath, finger tapping against his knee in a sign of irritation. 

“Whatever. Come here, I’ll treat it.” Law motioned for Luffy to come over to him, but Luffy just blinked at him with owlishly big eyes. 

“Huh?” 

“I said I’ll treat it,” Law repeated in a near growl, frown already evident on his face, “now hurry and come here before I change my mind.” Luffy’s expression was strange. There was a slight tint to his cheeks—not from shyness, that much Corazon could tell—and it was as if Luffy’s eyes held some sort of light, body radiating an indescribable joy as he trotted over the short distance between them and sat down. Was his arm bothering him that much and he was just glad to have it fixed? Somehow, that didn’t seem to be the reason to Corazon. 

“I can’t believe you forgot to treat your _dislocated shoulder_ for 6 days.” Law grumbled as he turned to face Luffy straight on, hands slipping to Luffy’s shoulder. Luffy snickered, light but incredibly giddy, causing his shoulders to shake and annoying Law. 

“Stop moving so much! This’ll be hard enough as it is without any relaxants and your dumbass who left it untreated for so long!” Law scolded and forced the other to sit still, to which he eventually did, and instead just silently watched Law massage his shoulder. Corazon watched in silence as to not disturb Law from his work and wondered why Luffy had that soft look on his face. Luffy was nothing short of an enigma, so Corazon could never understand what he was thinking or what his motives were. He couldn’t believe it. He was trained to read people, trained to _understand_ people. That was his job, as a long-term secret agent. 

Yet, he couldn’t get a single read on this kid. Every time he thought he managed to get a read on him, everything is suddenly scrambled up and nothing he deciphered was correct in the end. It was so baffling to Corazon, because Luffy seemed like such an open book, the type that’s easy to read and easy to trick. Sure, it hadn’t been longer than a day since meeting Luffy, but Luffy was so different at every turn it was almost as if he were a different person each time. How does one read and decode someone like him?

“I did it!” Corazon snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Law’s voice, seeing both of the childrens’ faces lit up as Luffy moved around his once limp hand. Luffy turned to Law, mouth open as if to say something, but fell silent when his eyes landed on Law’s face. Law turned his head to the side, and Corazon could hear the confused frown in his voice.

“What?” Law grumbled, shuffling around on Corazon’s lap under Luffy’s continued gaze.

"I've never seen you look so openly proud over your own work." Luffy finally said, tilting his head as if he were trying to get a better look at Law’s face. Law made an indignant sound of sorts, 

“Of course you haven’t, you don’t know me.” He retorted, Luffy snickered and fell back with a grin.

“I guess that’s true, thanks, Torao.” Despite Luffy’s thankful tone, Law huffed and crossed his arms again.

“How many times do I have to say that’s not my name, or are you as stupid as your shirt?” Luffy frowned and shot back up at this, cheeks puffed out. 

“What? It’s not stupid! Makino gave it to me!” Corazon looked down at Luffy’s shirt, a simple red tank top with a smiling sun on it, alongside simple navy blue font reading “niko” above it...he thought it was a good shirt, what was wrong with it? 

“Hah, you must really be stupid if you think _that’s_ a good shirt!” Law spat back, Corazon couldn’t clearly see Law’s face due to his large hat, but he definitely had a shit eating grin that stretched as Luffy’s frown worsened. 

“Don’t insult Makino’s gifts!” Luffy said, growling like a feral animal. Law gave a haughty scoff, nose up in the air. Oh boy…

“Or what?” He taunted. Or, Luffy will tackle them, as he so kindly showed without a breathe of a warning. Caught by surprise, Corazon fell back, losing his grip on the slippery Sea King. 

 

Oh shit. 

 

“Wait wait!” Corazon tried flailing in hopes of stopping the inevitable, but the inevitable is called the inevitable for a reason. They slip off of the Sea King, head first into the ocean. Corazon shut his eyes as the start of Law’s scream sounded, but they jerk to a halt instead of meeting draining sea water. Corazon reopens his eyes to see Luffy holding onto his wrist, his other arm holding onto his metal pipe that was hooked onto the mouth of the Sea King. Corazon gasped and looked down to check on Law, who was luckily still in the grip of his other hand with only half his leg dipping into the water. He sighed in relief, they were still alive and not drowning to their deaths…

“You guys good? Can you crawl up? You’re both kinda heavy and I’m really not as strong as I used to be…also my arm still feels a bit funny.” Corazon briefly wondered how strong Luffy was before if he considered supporting both a 3 metre man and child in one hand weak. 

But getting back up was more important than wasting time and Luffy dropping them to their deaths. Corazon helped Law crawled up first, and awkwardly tried to crawl up after with the help of Law. It wasn’t easy crawling on Luffy’s smaller than Law’s body when he wasn’t exactly a small man himself. Once he was up (and he held onto the Sea King’s fin this time for good measure), Luffy followed after and swung himself up. Corazon was mildly impressed that the Sea King didn’t try to eat any of them while dangling from its mouth. But that quickly turned into slight disgust when Luffy plopped down face first and made a little squelching noise from coming in contact with the mucus on the Sea King. Luffy didn’t seem bothered as he snickered and rolled onto his back. 

“Shishishi! Aah, that was fun!” He said breathlessly, Law kicking him straight in the gut right after. 

“YOU ALMOST FUCKING KILLED US!” Corazon sighed out as Luffy let out a cry of pain after receiving another kick, yelling out rushed out apologies and flailing around under Law’s unforgiving foot. This was going to be a long ride…

  


~x~ 

  


1511  
M:4  
D:12

They ended up accepting Luffy’s offer to take them to the East Blue, but one thing kept bothering Corazon—he hadn’t been able to catch Luffy sleeping, ever. Not even a nap. The first night, Luffy said he was on watch. Corazon had offered to do it instead, but Luffy denied the offer and told him to rest up instead. And Corazon did, with half his mind alert in case Luffy tried anything while he was asleep. He didn’t. Whether that was because he knew he wasn’t truly asleep, or because he didn’t have any intention to do anything regardless, Corazon couldn’t say for sure. 

And now the second night was coming to an end, and Luffy was still awake. Once again, Luffy had rejected his offer of being on watch. So there Corazon laid atop an uncomfortably slimy beast, time unsure under the night sky. Law was by his side, curled up snuggly in his feathered coat, peacefully sleeping away. When Corazon looked at Luffy, dark sky illuminated only by the stars and moon, Corazon saw a man, not a child. But a tired man, a man who has lost many precious things. A man who's always fighting, who always fought, but is just so tired. So lost. 

His shoulders seemed to be supporting an invisible yet immense weight on them, a weight much too heavy for a child in Corazon’s opinion. Corazon noticed an arm was trembling, and looked down to see Luffy clutching at his leg as if it were in agonizing pain. And, although all Corazon could see was his back, he could tell their face was nothing short of grim. Luffy must’ve sensed Corazon staring at him for such a long period of time and turned around to him. That’s when everything fell apart...no, that’s when everything was forcefully put back together, and any hint of pain was wiped clean off of his face. 

"What's the matter? Can't sleep?" Luffy asked, voice entirely void of strain. It was almost scary how good his mask was. Why would a child as small as this need such a mask? And how much did they have to use it before it was perfected to that level? 

"No...just, everything is rather sudden, so it's a lot to take in at once." He wasn't exactly lying to Luffy, his brain _was_ still racing with everything that had happened over the course of the past few days, but that wasn't the main reason he wasn't asleep like Law was. He just couldn't fully trust Luffy yet. Luffy’s reply was a mere noncommittal hum as he turned back around to stare off into the horizon. Silence draped over them, and Corazon wasn’t too sure if he really wanted to break it. With a hesitant breath, Corazon asked his question.

“Who taught you about the uses of the Op Op fruit? Vice admiral Garp?” 

“Torao.” Luffy replied, back still facing him.

“Law just got his fruit and knew nothing of it until you told him about it.” Luffy let out a single huff, bringing his index finger to his temple with a long hum, 

"Hnnnnnnnn, 's hard to explain…Torao told me about his fruit, but later. Not before." ...What? 

"...I'm sorry? What exactly do you mean?" The beast below them made a bubbly sort of chortle, making Corazon jump slightly, but Luffy puffed out his cheeks and...started talking to it, again. 

"Well it's confusing to explain ya know! It's too much work to do it each time!" Luffy had been doing that with the Sea King throughout their travels, talking to it and having one-sided conversations as if he could understand him. Sure, Corazon has seen people do that to their pets before, but usually they were things like dogs or cats...not exactly Sea Kings.

"What do you mean it's unbelievable? Ah! Are you saying you don't believe me either, King?" Luffy frowned childishly, arms crossed and cheeks still puffed. A stark difference from before.

"Mean, but fine. You don't have to believe me anyway." Luffy stuck his tongue out. Well...he can't really judge Luffy for talking to a Sea King, after all, Sengoku-san would occasionally talk to that goat of his. Well, it looked like he wasn't getting anymore clarification on Luffy's answer….

  


~x~ 

  


1511  
M:4  
D:13

"I've been meaning to ask but, how exactly are you going to cross the Reverse Mountain?" Corazon asked Luffy who was, for some reason, trying to cram large amounts of provisions into a single crate. Law was also helping him do so, stuffing what Corazon noticed was foods he liked. Luffy looked up momentarily at him, 

"We're gonna ride it." He answered, returning to his task. When a loaf of bread was taking too much space, he popped it into his mouth, mumbling something about Law not liking bread anyway. Corazon briefly wondered how Luffy knew that, but decided to focus on the more important question,

"Ride it? Do you have a ship somewhere? We're already pretty close to it, and I see nothing. Plus, how will you get to the East Blue instead of the Grand Line?" 

"'ah, I 'on't hah a shih thah ca' wi'h'and thah currahnts." Luffy replied around a mouthful of bread, it took Corazon a few moments to decipher what was said. 

"You...don't have a ship?" He asked, just to be sure. Luffy nodded. "Then, how will we get to the East Blue?" Luffy swallowed down his bread his bread and ah, it was that feeling again. That forbidding feeling of dread. 

"Mhm, well, first off we'll have to jump off the top." Corazon and Law both jerked to a stop, "And secondly, you two will need to hide in King's mouth since you're both Devil Fruit eaters who'll drown. I couldn't carry you both out if it happened since I can't really swim myself. So, you two will be inside of King's mouth in the meantime." 

…

"Huh?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, hopefully this chapter didn't bore ya'll _too_ much. I'm glad I got this chapter ready in time, I fucked up my sleep schedule, but I did it! Anyway, thank you for making it to the end, and I'd love to hear what ya'll thought!
> 
> Oh yeah, Law was on Corazon's lap most of the ride. Thought King was too slimy and didn't want to touch him. Silly Law, you can hide under dead bodies but you can't sit on a Sea King?


End file.
